Heroes in Skyrim
by LuckyGalaxySeven
Summary: The Avengers are trapped in Skyrim. How? They don't know. Why? They don't know that either. But something's wrong with Tony's arc reactor, no one has their weapons, and Loki somehow got there too. All they have is two girls to help them. They have to escape from this freakish land. How? They don't know that either.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys! So this is my first, full on story. I hope it goes well. I've never done one like this before, but I'll give it my best shot! I don't know when I'll get chapter 2, but I'll try to finish soon :) So, read and tell me what you think! I hope the characters aren't too OOC, but thanks for reading anyways!**

He blinked open his chocolate brown eyes, staring straight up at the clouds. He was cold. His body was coated in soft snow, melting into his clothes. He jerked upright. This is not where he had fallen asleep.

He looked around, dusting the snow from his hands. Thor and Steve were still out cold. Bruce was groaning to himself, still trying to wake up. Tony hoped he wasn't angry when he woke up. That was the last thing they needed. Natasha and Clint were awake, sitting next to a small, crumbling building.

Natasha glanced up. "Goodmorning Sleeping Beauty."

Tony immediately had a response to that, but he supressed it. "What happened?" he asked.

Clint dropped from the top of the building. "Don't know. We woke up just as confused." he said.

Tony walked stiff-legged over to the fire to try and warm up. But it was a cold fire. Natasha hugged herself, trying to stay warm. Clint sat down close to her, trying to keep her warm.

Nobody was prepared for this. They all had been lounging around at the Stark Tower, then, BAM! Everybody was unconscious. And somehow, they ended up here. Wherever 'here' was.

And by unprepared, I mean they had _nothing. _Even Thor was in a t-shirt and jeans and his hammer was no where to be seen. Clint didn't even have his bow, and he _always _had his bow.

Steve sat up suddenly. He squinted around at the sky. "What the heck?" he muttered.

Natasha poked the fire again as he came over and sat next to it. One by one, everybody filed over to the fire to keep warm. The fire hadn't gotten any warmer though, and there wasn't much wood.

"Where are we?" Bruce asked quietly.

Tony looked around, trying to see through the snow that had been getting heavier and heavier. It landed in Natasha's hair, making her look like a snow nymph or something. It didn't look very manly in anybody else's hair. Especially Thor's.

Suddenly, there was a gust of wind. The fire went out. Everything got darker. Thor looked up suddenly. "What was that?" Natasha asked in a small voice.

A long, low roar echoed around them. The wind picked up, blowing the snow away, and whipping Thor's hair into crazy knots.

Clint stood up, seeing it first. "Run!" he shouted.

Tony glanced back, fighting a mental battle between staying alive and curiosity. Finally, he turned and followed his teammates.

They ran as fast as their legs could carry them. The snow got into their shoes, pelted them in the face and blinded them. Still they ran.

Finally, when their legs felt like lead, their lungs burning for air, they stopped. They couldn't hear the roar anymore. They must've run at least a mile according to Tony's math.

But they didn't know where they were. They didn't even know if they were together. They could only see about a foot in front of them, if that.

The cold stung Tony's arms and face, chilling his bones. He shivered and rubbed his hands together. A voice called out a few feet to his left. "Hello?" Thor boomed.

"Are you alright?" Steve's voice echoed back from the opposite side of Tony.

"I am okay. Is anybody with you?" Thor asked.

"Not that I can tell. You?"

"No. I am alone in this blizzard."

"Thor? Steve?" Bruce called out.

"Over here!" Steve cried.

There was a moment of silence as Bruce made his way towards Steve's voice.

"Guys! Is everybody okay?" Natasha asked.

"Tasha! To you're left!" Clint said.

Tony fell to his knees. Something sharp pierced his chest. The little circle of light in his chest flickered a few times. He let out a stiffled breath.

"Clint! Natasha! Bruce and I are over here!" Steve cried out.

There was more shuffling. "May I join you?" Thor asked.

"Come on buddy. Huddle for warmth." Clint said.

Thor shuffled over. There was silence as they all tried to warm up.

Ice creeped into Tony's veins, freezing him slowly. His arc reactor flickered some more. He gasped for air and fell onto his side, hugging himself. He tried to yell, call out for help. His voice never made it out of his throat. It froze there, turning to ice. The snow piled up around him.

"Where is the man of iron?" Thor asked suddenly.

There was a moment of silence, and then, "What? Where is he?!" Natasha cried.

"I thought he was behind you guys!" Steve said.

"He wasn't with us. I thought he was with you." Clint said.

"We lost him." Natasha said bluntly. "Shows how smart we are."  
"He's a grown man. He can look after himself." Steve said suddenly.

"Still, one man cannot survive alone here. We must find him." Thor said softly. Tony could hear the voices. He couldn't picture the faces they belonged to, just that they were friendly. He had to get their attention. He didn't know how. His mind was foggy and sluggish. He couldn't think straight. His mind kept straying to his chest, which was on fire despite the cold.

He groaned, slowly growing numb. He couldn't feel his legs up to his knees. He let out a breath, which formed a cloud above his face. He watched it for a second, watching it dissapate into the rest of the air. That had been his just a second ago.

Suddenly, Clint appeared from nowhere, breaking through what seemed to be a wall of snow. "I found him!" he called.

Tony's vision swam. The voices seemed slow in his ears. His mind was slushy. He had to focus on taking breaths. He shut his eyes as soon as Thor lifted him off the ground. Little spots of lights danced on his eyelids, and then he blacked out.

Thor carried him through the snow, trying to shield him. Nobody knew what had happened. Even Bruce was clueless, saying that he, "wasn't that kind of doctor". And plus he could barely see his hand in front of his face.

They trudged throught the snow for what seemed like hours. And then, suddenly, a city seemed to pop out of nowhere in front of them. It had huge walls and Clint, who was in the front because he could see the best, had almost smacked into it. "We have to find a door!" Steve called out over the blizzard.

Clint nodded even though no one could see him. "Let's go left!" Natasha shouted.

They began circling the wall until the found a huge wooden door that was barred with metal. Flickering coals were in large holders on either side of the door.

Natasha ran up and beat furiously on the doors. Then, the doors were hauled open by two men clad in armor. One of them had a sword strapped to his side, and the other had a huge war hammer on his back. A third one appeared in front of their little group. "Who are you?" he demanded in a heavy norse accent.

Everyone was silent. They were cold and hungry, and something was wrong with Tony. They wanted to be inside, and Clint and Natasha really wanted some hot chocolate.

"Please, just let us in. Does it look like we can do anything to you?" Natasha demanded.

Their group did look pretty bad. Their clothes were torn and they were starting to look frostbitten.

The guard considered this. "Let us in, this man is dying!" Thor shouted.

The guard seemed to notice Thor for the first time. He stiffened. "Oh! Come in! We can get you to the inn, it's just down the road!"

Thor hadn't expected that quick of a response, but they were ushered into the city and down the snowy road. Finally, they got to a building at the other end. A sign hung over the doorway that read, _The Bannered Mare. _

Inside, was a roaring fire and a drinking bar. Around the fire were a bunch of chairs and a bench.

Thor laid Tony on the bench. He was still out cold. "Can I help you?"

A woman walked out from behind the table. She had dark skin and jet black hair. Clint looked up at her. "You a doctor?" he asked.

"Um, no. I'm an innkeeper." the woman said bluntly.

"Then no, you can't help us." he said, turning back to Tony.

Bruce was able to examin Tony a little closer now that he could see. He was breathing, that much was obvious. But his arc reactor was still flickering. That wasn't an especially good sign.

Thor crouched down beside the bench. "What is wrong with him?" he asked.

Bruce shook his head. "I don't know. If he was a normal guy, I would say maybe a heart attack, but he's not normal. I don't know if maybe his reactor stops that kind of thing."

"Well, it is flickering." Clint pointed out.

Bruce nodded. "Yeah..."

"Is the um, what is it you humans call it? S,sh- shra..."

"Shrapnel?" Clint supplied.

Thor nodded. "Yes. That. Does that have something to do with it?"

Bruce looked helplessly at Tony's pale face. "I have no idea. I wish I could say. I would only be able to tell if I did surgery, and I don't think this is the best time for that." he said.

Thor shook his head in agreement. "No, it's not. But if it saves him..."

"I don't know how that would help him at all. There's no way to get the shrapnel out."

Thor looked surprised. "Oh."

Natasha huddled by the fire. She wished she could help somehow. But she could barely feel her arms or legs. Her face was stinging with the sudden heat of the blazing fire. Steve came over and sat across from her. "I wish I could help with that." he said.

Natasha nodded. "Me too."

"But I don't know the first thing about modern medicine." he said, laughing quietly.

Natasha shrugged. "I don't really either. I would help if I could."

Steve nodded and stared into the flames. Natasha closed her eyes, enjoying the heat on her face. She held out her hands, feeling the warmth spread across her skin. There was no better feeling. Except maybe drinking chocolate milk.

Suddenly, there was a strangled breath from across the room. Natasha snapped her eyes open. Steve spun around to look at the bench where Tony was laying.

His eyes were still closed, but his breathing was becoming ragged. His chest rose and fell. Natasha stood up. "What's going on?" she asked.

Clint took a step back and shook his head. "I have no idea."

Bruce looked at Tony. He looked sad... Almost like he might, cry? No. Bruce wouldn't do that. He probably was immune to crying.

Tony took a couple steady breaths before letting out a particularly ragged one again. He groaned in his sleep. He twisted like he was in pain. Natasha wondered what was going on.

Bruce's eyes widened. There was nothing he could do. So he just sat there, mumbling to himself. "Come on Tony, stay with me. You'll be fine." he sounded more like he might be reassuring himself though.

Just then, there was a loud bang. A flash of green light filled the room. The

innkeeper screamed and dove behind the counter. Everybody fell backwards and Tony rolled off the bench, landing with a thud on the other side. His eyes opened and a strangled breath left his mouth. Pain streaked through his limbs.

Steve jumped up and ran to the spot of the explosion. Sitting there, in what looked like a puddle of, _blood,_ was a single scroll. And a note.

He bent down and picked it up. The scroll was sealed shut. He cracked the seal on the note and read it. In fancy script, it said two words: _heal him. _

Steve blinked. Heal him. Heal who? He looked up, Tony was laying on the ground, staring blankly at the ceiling, breathing heavily. Heal Tony. But how?

The innkeeper looked up from behind the table. She saw Steve holding the scroll and the note. Her eyes widened. She knew that scroll. Anybody living in Skyrim knew that scroll. She walked over to him, avoiding the blood. She read the note over his shoulder. "Do you need a healing potion?" she asked softly.

Steve jumped about two feet off the ground and spun around. He hadn't realized she was there. "A what?"

"A healing potion. It can heal just about anything, depending on how much you drink."

Steve blinked. "Yes!" he cried.

He took the red bottle from her and ran over to Tony. Bruce was helping him sit on the bench, but he still looked awful. His eyes were glazed over and his face was pale. The arc reactor was still flickering and blood was dripping out of the corner of his mouth.

Steve sincerlely hoped the 'healing potion' wasn't poison. "Drink this." Steve said, uncapping the bottle.

"What's that?" Bruce asked quickly.

"I have no idea."

Steve opened Tony's mouth a little bit and poured the liquid down his throat. There was an awkard moment of silence where Bruce just stared at Steve with that, '_What did you just do?' _look.

Suddenly, color rushed back into Tony's face. He blinked and looked up at Steve as air filled his lungs and he took in a startled breath. His reactor flickered and came back to life, glowing a solid blue again.

Tony sat still for a minute, feeling the pain fade away. He reached up and wiped the blood from his mouth onto his sleeve. He looked up. "What just happened?"

Steve looked at the bottle he was holding. "I'm not really sure."

The innkeeper walked up. "I just saved your life. You're welcome. My name's Sadia by the way."

Tony looked up at her. "Hi."

Sadia blinked, like she expected more from the man she just saved, but ignored it. She had been treated worse.

Just then, a girl in gray armor burst through the door, dragging a man behind her. She had long, jet black hair hanging around her shoulders. She had piercing blue eyes and a long, three pronged scar that ran across her cheek. She had two swords strapped to her side, three daggers (one in her boot, another on her side, and one on her thigh), a bow and a quiver of arrows on her back. "Come on! How much do you weigh?" she demanded.

The man she was dragging was bound with rope and gagged. He was knocked out cold. Sadia walked to the counter, smiling. "Syth! How have you been?"

Syth smiled. "Cold. I caught this guy running around destroying things. Thought I'd take him to the jarl for a bounty or something, but this blizzard is so bad it's snowed in Dragonsreach."

"I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was that bad. Well, feel free to stay as long as you'd like."

"Thanks, but I have a house just down the road. I just didn't want to leave Lydia in charge of guarding him and I wanted a drink."

"Makes sense. I'll get you that drink." Sadia said, turning to the kitchen.

But none of the Avengers could speak. The man who she had, tied up and out cold, was none other than Loki himself.

**Yeah, I know. That was a terrible ending. Sorry! I'll try to better next time! Read and tell me what you think! What should happen next? What are your thoughts? I could always use help! Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**So here's chapter 2! Let me know what you think! And again, if you have any ideas for where this should go, let me know! I really like input :) So thanks guys!**

His hands were shaky. His eye lashes had mini ice sickles on them. He wasn't cold though, he was just stiff. He sat up, blinking the sleep from his eyes. Where was he? He looked down at himself. More importantly, what was he wearing? Pathetic mortal wear. Loki had never been used to the t-shirts and jeans he had so often seen. He was far more comfortable in his robes and helmet.

He returned his attention to his surroundings. All he saw was snow. More and more snow, for as far as the eye could see. He didn't feel cold though. He looked at his hands, standing up. He was confused for just a moment, until he remembered what he was that caused him to actually enjoy the cold. _Some sort of monster. _

He shook his head and started walking forwards towards, well, he didn't know. He stomped through the snow, stuffing his hands into his pockets. He thought he heard a roar off in the distance, but he ignored it. He dared anything to attack him.

He kept walking for a while, actually hoping to run into someone or something. Even in the prison on Asgard he had more company than this. Thor would come visit him every day. He sighed. What he wouldn't give for some attention right about then. He caught himself. What was he thinking? He didn't need any attention. He could support his own weight.

He looked up, thinking he heard something in the distance. Instinct caused him to break into a run. When he got closer, he crouched down, knowing he would be obvious against the white snow. He definitely heard something. Voices.

"No stupid. You don't cook a chicken that way." It was a deep, heavy norse voice.

"Well then _you _cook it mister know-it-all." An unhappy female voice said, also norse.

"Fine, I will. Give it here."

Suddenly, a small dead chicken on a spit was thrown from the wall of snow and landed right next to Loki. "Go and get it." the female voice said.

There was an audible sigh from the room. "You're gonna make me go out there? That's cruel."

"Do you want your dinner?"

Loki looked at the raw chicken, suddenly realizing how hungry he was. He bent over to grab it and then turned around when he heard the male voice. "That's my chicken. Hand it over."

Loki turned around slowly, holding the chicken. "Oh, this?" he asked.

The man nodded. He was clad in full armor. "Give it here."

Loki frowned. "Are you sure I couldn't keep it? I'm very hungry..."

The man pulled out a large war hammer. Loki flinched. He didn't like hammers much. "Do you want me to do this the hard way?" the man asked gruffly.

Loki visualized that the chicken on the spit was his spear for a moment, and that he wasn't wearing these ridiculous mortal clothes. He would destroy this man.

Loki hesitated. "Give it up, milk drinker." the man spat.

Loki raised his eyebrows. "Is that so?"

The man's eyes widened underneath his helmet. Ice creeped up his legs, through his veins. "I'll be keeping this, thank you." Loki said.

The man struggled for a breath as the ice covered his arms and grew up over his neck. "What's taking you so long?" The female voice cried from the room.

She stepped out of the room into the snow and saw her brother covered in ice. She shrieked and grabbed a bow. Loki looked over at her. He didn't care for bows much either. The woman took aim and fired. Loki dove out of the way easily. She wasn't as good of a shot as that Clint.

"What, did you do to him?!" she demanded, firing off another arrow that struck dangerously close to Loki's foot.

Loki held the spit up, thinking it was his spear for a minute. He was about to rush at her with it until he remembered that it was definitely _not_ his spear. He turned red, hoping she didn't notice. Suddenly, before he could reply, the woman was rushing at him with a knife. His eyes widened and he rolled out of the way and came up behind her. She spun around, shoving the knife at his chest. He dodged it barely. It caught part of his shirt and ripped a hole. "If you stay out here you might catch frost bite." Loki said, trying to hold back a smile.

"I. Don't. Catch. Frost bite!" she cried, thrusting the dagger at him with each word.

Loki frowned. "You will."

Suddenly, the snow exploded at her feet. She screamed, flying backwards. She laid on her back for a moment before Loki walked up to her. She looked up at him. "Who are you?"

Loki smiled. "That's for me to know." he watched as the snow covered her, leaving nothing left.

He turned around. His eyes widened. He was surrounded.

There was at least twenty people, all clad in armor, weiling weapons. And not just swords; there was just about every weapon imaginable. Hammers, swords, daggers, maces, spears, axes, bows, throwing stars, and a couple of the people wearing robes had lighting or fire in their hands. Loki gulped. If he had his spear, this would be no problem. But all he had was a chicken on a spit.

Then, a man bigger than all the rest stepped forward. He was wearing silver armor and a huge war axe was strapped to his back. "What are you waiting for?!" he demanded. "Kill this whelp!"

Loki sucked in a breath and rolled out of the way of the first attacker. His mind went into overload, trying to process everything at once. A lot of it was just snow, but the rest was a mess of weapons and armor, all rushing at him.

He knew that he snatched an arrow out of the air once, he dropped his chicken, knocked somebody down with a kick, and punched somebody in the nose. He somehow ended up with a small dagger that looked like it was made of ebony. He looked up and saw that he was surrounded by unmoving corpses. All that remained was the largest of all of them. Loki wielded his little knife, hoping it wouldn't break in his hand. "I'm gonna kill you." the man growled, baring thick, rotting teeth.

Loki gulped and held the knife at ready. The man pulled out his huge axe that glinted in the bright white light of the snow. He thought he could see some stale blood left over on the blade. That wasn't exactly a good sign.

The man rushed at him, about to bring the axe crashing down on his head. Loki stepped to the side at the last minute and ran the knife along the mans side as he ran by. He skidded to a stop and howled. "You're gonna pay for that, whelp."

Loki gave him his trademark smile that said, _oh no you're not. _

The man rushed at him again and Loki side stepped him once more. Then he realized something: this guy only had one gear, _forward. _

Loki just kept sidestepping and jabbing with his knife. Eventually, the man fell, face first into the snow, ice taking over his veins. Loki was almost unscathed.

"Nice work." he spun around to see a black haired, girl smiling at him. He hadn't even noticed her there. How long had she been watching for? And she didn't even bother to help? She probably was with them.

Loki rushed her, thinking she was going to attack him at the last minute. She drew two swords. One of them was black as night and the other was glowing bright like the sun.

Loki was momentarily dazed by the beauty of their combination against the white snow. She stared him right in the eyes. Something about them was, off. She looked... different. Loki forgot what he was doing as she opened her mouth and the most amazing string of words left it."_Fus, do RAH!_" she shouted the last part. He couldn't tell what it said, just that it held so much meaning. It sounded like part of a song, that could be played forever and ever and he would sit and listen to it for the rest of eternity. It made the sun in the sky look like a limp ball of light. It made the night seem like a simple black blanket. It made the storms seem like weak gusts of wind on a hot summer day. Nothing compared to this.

And it knocked Loki back so hard he barely knew what had happened. He laid on the snow, staring at the sky. He couldn't move. He tried, but his limbs wouldn't obey. The girl walked up, almost stepping on him. "You killed all those bandits with a knife? Impressive."

He barely caught the last word as he lost consciousness.

**I know, it's short :/ sorry. Hopefully the next one will be longer! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry it took me so long to post this! Writers block :/ anyways… read and tell me what you think! :)**

The Avengers followed Syth into her house and out of the storm. The snow had almost blocked her doorway. Tony glanced around. A fire was burning in the center of the room. Two chairs were stationed around it and an area that looked like a dining room was behind that. There was an upstairs right across from the fire that led to two more rooms. On the far wall, beside the dining room, was a set of doors that led to another small room. The entire house was extremely tiny, at least compared to what Tony was used to.

But the house had everything in it. There were random barrels and baskets scattered around on the floor. There were cupboards, drawers, shelves, little end tables, chests, and a lot of other little containers. And then there were the things. Above the door was a mounted sword that seemed to glimmer if you looked at it just right. By one of the sets of drawers, there was a weapons rack that had a mace, an odd looking staff, and a large bow. On the other side of the room, was another mounted sword with a shield in the middle. The baskets were full of arrows and small knives and shiny gems that looked a little peculiar.

And then there were the books. And the letters. And the strange plants. The table in the dining room had one plate of cold steak; and the rest of the table was covered in books. Most of them were open or at least book marked. Books were stacked by the chairs and falling out of the chests. Books were lying on the stairs and behind them. Random pieces of paper were lying on top of dressers and end tables. One of them was open, and Tony could see a black hand print on it.

Strange purple flowers were in a basket, along with a bunch of mushrooms and other flowers. A glowing plant laid in one of the seats and were scattered around by the stairs. Cloves of garlic hung from the ceiling in front of one of the doors upstairs. Bright red flowers littered the floor underneath the stairs.

Tony blinked. That was just downstairs. Who knew what was upstairs. "Lydia!" Syth called. "We have company!"

Syth set her bow down in one of the chairs and unbuckled her sword belt. "Why isn't dinner ready?" she asked as a girl came down stairs.

The girl had long, curly blonde hair and bright green eyes that seemed to stare right through you. She had a large sword strapped to her back. It had a silver blade and was embedded with rubies. In the hilt, was a smaller glowing gem stone, a lot like the ones Tony saw in the baskets.

"I was supposed to make dinner?" she asked. Her voice was thick with what sounded like a British accent. But they weren't anywhere near Britain.

"Um, yeah. You were. I told you that before I left." Syth said, setting a still knocked-out Loki in the other chair, accidentally crushing the glowing plant.

"Oh. Sorry." Lydia said, only sounding half sorry.

"You're supposed to be my... What's it called? A shield maiden or whatever?" Syth asked.

"It's a-"

Syth cut her off. "Whatever you are, you're supposed to at least make me dinner when I ask."

Lydia rolled her eyes. "Sorry." she looked at all the tired Avengers standing around. "Who are they?" She poked Loki in the head. "And who's this?"

"Um, these are," she turned to them. "What did you call yourselves again?" Syth asked.

"The Avengers." Steve said proudly.

Tony stiffened. "Is that like a team?" Lydia asked.

"Sort of." Tony said quickly.

"As close as you can get." Steve said, casting a sideways glance at Tony.

Lydia frowned. "Who's this?" she poked Loki in the head again.

"That is my brother. Loki, of Asgard." Thor said.

"Loki of where?"

"Of Asgard."

"Um... Okay... I don't know where that is..."

"Would you like me to explain it to you?" Thor asked.

"No! No she wouldn't!" Clint said quickly.

All of the Avengers knew how much Thor rambled when he started talking about his home or his brother. He just didn't stop.

Thor looked a little sad, but went silent. "Asgard is just where they live." Clint said, making up for it.

Lydia nodded. She turned to Syth. "How come they aren't staying at the inn? I mean, not to be rude, but... We don't have a lot of room."

Syth smiled. "They don't have any money. And plus... Something's different." she dropped her voice to a whisper and said something that Tony couldn't hear.

He began walking around, looking at all the odd trinkets. When he looked closer, he saw even more. There were little rings that had a strange air about them or glowed slightly. Small crowns with gems embedded in them littered the shelves. There was so much stuff it took a while to process it all.

Then, suddenly, there was a gasp. Loki's eyes snapped open. Tony spun around, instinctively bringing his hands up, ready to fight, Iron Man suit or not.

Loki squirmed and squirmed, trying to get out of his ties. Tony saw his eyes flash red and then go back to normal. Tony jumped ever so slightly. He had never seen that happen before.

Then, Loki broke the ropes holding him. Lydia jumped back and drew her sword. Syth picked up her scabbard and pulled out her swords too. Loki jumped to his feet and looked around. He brought his hands up, momentarily forgetting he wasn't in any sort of armor. And the two girls he was facing were.

"Dude, you're outnumbered. Stop." Syth said.

"How about you have a seat?" Lydia asked, gesturing to the chair with her sword.

Loki glanced at her, gulped, and hesitantly sat down. Then he looked up and saw the rest of the Avengers. Apparently he hadn't noticed them before because he leapt at Thor. "What are you doing here?" he demanded.

Thor pushed him back into the chair. "I do not know. How are you here?"

Loki frowned. "I don't know. I thought your Asgard friends sent me here." he spat.

Thor shook his head. He opened his mouth like he was about to say something, but he was interrupted by a loud crash. Everything went silent. The fire in the hearth flickered for moment.

"What was that?" Lydia asked.

Syth frowned. A loud roar echoed around the room. She cursed under her breath. "You guys know how to fight?" she asked the Avengers, strapping her bow to her back again and picking up her swords.

"You could say that." Clint said.

"Good. We got a dragon out there. Get a weapon." she said.

Tony watched as everybody grabbed something. A dragon? He couldn't believe it. But still, what was that outside if it wasn't a dragon? And after what he had seen, with the aliens, anything could be possible.

But either way he didn't have a weapon. He couldn't use a bow, which Clint grabbed. He didn't use knives, which Natasha took. Thor took a hammer, but Tony couldn't use that either. Steve grabbed a shield off the wall, but Tony didn't use those either. Bruce took a knife, but he held it hesitantly. He wasn't used to weapons. Tony stood, looking lost.

Natasha came up to him. "You might as well grab a sword or something. It's better than nothing." she said.

Tony nodded. His throat had closed up. He picked up a sword that was in a basket. It felt unbalanced and foreign in his hands. He held it firmly anyways, swallowing down panic. He didn't allow any of it to show. He buried it and painted his usual look of fearlessness across his face.

Lydia ran to the door and opened it. Syth ran out, Natasha and Clint close on her heels. "Should have done this earlier." Syth muttered and shouted something unintelligible into the wind.

The whole earth seemed to shake with the power of her voice. Everything went completely still.

She paused. A second later, the sky was clear. Only a bit of snow was falling. "What happened?" Steve shouted.

No one answered. Because no one had an answer. Except Lydia, who looked like nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Tony ran out, staring up at the sky. He couldn't see anything. There wasn't a dragon anywhere in sight. Everything was calm and quiet.

Everyone else filed out of the little house. Even Loki came, who was holding a staff that was shimmering slightly.

"Where are you..." Syth muttered to herself, turning in a circle.

"Three o'clock!" Lydia suddenly shouted.

Tony looked over as Syth spun around. Out of nowhere, a giant red dragon came hurtling towards her. She yelled out some sort of battle cry and rushed at the dragon. Lydia leapt in right behind her. They fought ferociously.

Clint fired off a few arrows and Loki fired bolts of, was it electricity? Suddenly, Tony realized that he was frozen to the spot. His legs wouldn't move. He willed them to move. He tried to erase his fear again. And he did. He drowned it and bolted forwards. He jumped and landed right on top of one of the dragon's feet. Pain jolted through his body. He forgot he wasn't wearing the suit. It normally absorbed most of the shock.

He ignored it and started hacking. He had no idea what the proper way to use a sword was, but he tore that dragons foot into shreds.

The rest of the Avengers joined in, all pounding the dragon into pulp. And then, one of Clint's arrows hit the dragon's eye. It screeched. It was a terrible sound that tore at the depths of your inner being. Tony shook himself and took a few steps back.

The dragon collapsed and went limp. Lydia jumped off his head and walked up next to Syth. "Who shot that?" Syth asked, glancing around.

Clint was the only one with a bow, so it was pretty easy to figure out. He smiled slightly. "Nice job." she said, looking impressed.

Tony dropped the sword. He couldn't use that big heavy hunk of metal. It was useless to him. He needed something more maneuverable.

Then, something happened. A golden light started to surround Syth. It flowed around her and then into her. It seemed to be coming from the dragon. Thor took a step backwards. Lydia jumped a little bit, and then relaxed, like it was normal.

Syth shook her head. "I never get used to that." she said.

"What the heck was that?" Steve asked.

"Well... I absorbed the dragon's soul... If that makes any sense." Syth laughed.

Steve looked, disturbed, to say the least. "No. No it doesn't."

Syth frowned. "It's hard to explain. I'm Dragonborn, so that means I'm the only one who can actually kill dragons. I absorb their souls, which is the only way to kill them. So... that pretty much sums it up! Now, do you guys want any tea?"

"I would like some." Loki said.

Steve just looked stunned. So did everybody else. Tony shook it off and followed Lydia back into the house. Eventually, the rest followed. Syth made a pot of tea, but only Lydia, Bruce, and Loki had some. Everybody else was feeling a little too antsy for tea.

Natasha and Clint sat alone in a corner, talking to each other in low voices. Bruce and Steve were talking about dragons, and Thor was asking Loki why he was wearing mortal clothes.

Tony sat alone, feeling extremely vulnerable. He tried to cover it. He tried to look like he was on top of everything. He felt so weak.

He knew he was the only real human on the Avengers team, not counting Natasha and Clint. They were agents of SHIELD too though; which gave them a bit of an advantage. Tony was just... Tony. A guy in a suit with a billion dollars. Nothing special.

Steve... He was a superhuman. He could take on armies at a time and come out unscathed. Thor; well, he was the son of Odin. That should speak for itself. Bruce? Gamma radiation had turned him into something more than human. And then there was Tony. The only human. It scared him. What if they ganged up on him one day? Sure, he had special suits for that, but what if he was stranded like this? Or what if his suits weren't enough? And still he sat; his face an unreadable mask.

Syth came up and sat by him. She was silent for a moment, her hair hanging down in front of her face. "So... Uh, I saw that you were having a little trouble with the sword..." she said.

Tony nodded. "I don't do swords." he said.

"What do you do? Do you use a bow? 'Cause I have a few more upstairs I think." she said.

He shook his head. "No, I use something a little more... um, sophisticated? I think that's the word."

"I don't have any crossbows..."

"No. I use a suit." he said simply.

"Like, armor? I have a lot of that." she told him.

"Yeah. But armor that can fly and shoot repulsors."

"Shoot what?"

"Repulsors. It's like a um... a laser."

"What's that?" she asked.

"Never mind."

They were silent for a second. Then, a thought struck Syth. "Is it like magic?" she asked.

He looked at her. "Magic?"

She nodded. "Like this."

She held up her hand and a burst of flame appeared in it. Tony jumped. "How did you do that?"

"I already said; magic." she said. "I hate using it, but some people don't even use weapons. They just use magic. I can't stand it."

Tony would have said that there was no such thing as magic, but after meeting Thor and Loki, he wasn't so sure.

"Well... I guess it's kind of like magic... But not really." he told her.

"Then I have the perfect thing for you." she smiled. "Follow me."

She stood up and walked over to a basket. Tony followed her. She was standing over the basket with the strange gems. "These are soul gems." she said.

"A what?" he asked.

"You heard me. They capture souls of dead animals and turn them into usable power for magic items. You might be able to charge some armor with the right gem and turn it into something similar to what you have at home." she said.

Tony tried to process all this. Magic gems? Souls of creatures? But... It just might work.

"Do you have any armor I can use?" he asked.

"I have a pair of gauntlets and boots I'd be willing to let you enchant. But everything else is already enchanted." she said.

A million thoughts raced through Tony's head. "That should work."

Syth went upstairs and a few minutes later came back down with the armor. She scooted some books off the end of the table and put the boots and gloves on them.

Tony examined the soul gems. He thought he had them figured out. He looked at the gloves and boots. Then, it all clicked. "Oh... That's really simple." he said.

Syth smiled. "It's pretty easy. And the bigger the gem the more powerful it is."

Tony nodded. "I think... I think this might work." he said.

"Can I help at all?" she asked.

"I don't know how you would."

She shrugged. "If you need anything, Lydia can help you."

"What?" Lydia cried from across the room. "Are you volunteering me for things again?!"

"Maybe. You are my thane."

"No it's the other way around. You're the thane I'm the-"

Syth waved her hand. "Whatever."

Lydia growled to herself.

Suddenly, there came a knock on the door.

Syth glanced at Lydia, who gave her a thumbs up. Tony wondered what that was all about.

Syth straightened her armor and walked to the door. She opened it. "Hi. What do you want?" she asked.

A guy in a hood and robe stood outside. You couldn't see his eyes, but he was wearing a huge grin. "Is he here?" the man cried.

"Is who here?" Syth asked.

"Talos! I heard that he has come back!"

"Talos? Um, no. He's not here. Those are just rumors you know." she said.

"Someone saw him! He has blond hair and blue eyes. He's like us! And he helped defeat the dragon! And when you get close to him, some sort of current runs through you!" he cried.

"Go away. No one like that is here." she said, shutting the door on him.

She locked it and turned around. Everybody looked at Thor. "Is everything alright?" he asked.


	4. Chapter 4

**Here's chapter four :) Thanks for reading guys! Please review and let me know what you think :) **

Loki looked at his brother. Who was Talos? But the description that man gave fit him perfectly. Loki felt bad for the girl that was his girl friend. Every time he kissed her she'd get an electric shock. Painful, but amusing to watch.

"Did I do something wrong?" Thor boomed, worry clouding his face.

"Who _is _Talos?" Natasha asked.

Syth sighed. "He's one of the nine divines. There used to be eight, but the divines took favor with Talos as a human and turned him into one of them. That was hundreds of years ago. Now, he's the most revered in all of Skyrim. But, his worship is banned by the Empire right now." she replied.

"Why is it banned?" Natasha was confused.

"War." Lydia said softly, staring into the hearth. "Civil war does things to people."

"You're at war?" Clint asked.

"Yeah." Syth said. "And everybody thinks the dragons and I are mixed up in it somehow. They think it's my fault."

"They're forcing her to choose a side. And, pretty much whichever side she joins will win, because she's the Dragonborn." Lydia said.

"Which side will you join?" Steve asked, immediatly thinking he was the man to ask for advice on a war.

Syth shrugged, poking a piece of fish onto a stick and roasting it. "I don't know. I might just stall until the war is over."

"The war might not end until you choose."

"I know. But I don't know what to do."

"The longer you wait the more people are dying."

Syth looked up at him suddenly. Her eyes flared. "You think I don't know that?" she hissed.

Steve was taken aback.

"It's not my fault, okay?" she cried. "I never asked to be Dragonborn!"

"Syth... Calm down." Lydia said.

Syth looked at Lydia and suddenly looked extremely worried. "Oh gosh... Did I?" she asked.

Lydia shook her head. Relief washed over Syth's face.

Loki examined Syth. Something was off about her, he could tell. And it wasn't just the 'Dragonborn' thing that nobody understood. Something else was different.

There was a long moment of silence when suddenly- _BAM!_

Heads turned in Tony's direction. He was wearing one of the gloves and looking a little stunned. Across from him was a smoking pile of books. Then, a little smirk spread across his face as he admired his work. "Sorry 'bout that..." he said, pointing at the ruined books, only sounding a little sorry.

Syth blinked. "It's fine I probably have more copies of them around somewhere." she said.

"What was that?" Clint asked.

Tony held up his glove and wiggled his fingers. "Mark 43." he said, smiling.

"You have _got _to be kidding me." Steve said, facepalming. "You're building another one?"

Tony went back to installing another gem in the other glove. "Well, unlike some supersoldier I know, I don't actually use a little shield all the time."

"I thought you said you're suit _was _a shield?" Natasha asked.

Tony rolled his eyes, clicking the gem into place. "Are you Natalie or Natasha? I can never tell. It is a shield. It's just not a little dinky shield."

Natasha sighed and resorted to glaring at him.

Syth finished roasting her fish and began munching away at it.

Loki sat alone, hungrily staring at the fish. He had just remembered that he had never gotten that chicken. He_ had _fought a dragon, but he hadn't gotten any chicken.

Suddenly, Lydia was sitting next to him. He looked up quickly. "What do you want?" he asked.

She looked at him. "Hi to you too."

"What?"

"Learn to use manners. They'd suit you."

Loki rolled his eyes. "Please go sit somewhere else."

Lydia shook her head. "No can do. There's no other spot open."

Loki saw a nice one in the fire, but he decided not to share that one with her.

"Do you want some food?" she asked.

Loki looked over at her. "Are you going to poison it?"

"Oh. Of course. Why wouldn't I?" she said sarcastically. "Fish or chicken?"

"Chicken." he said quickly.

Lydia put some on a stick and began roasting it. Loki willed it to cook faster and almost grabbed the stick from her and ate it the way it was. But he held himself back. He never knew he could be so hungry. Even in the cell in Asgard he had never went hungry.

Finally, it finished cooking and Loki practically ripped the chicken away from Lydia. He inhaled it in about twenty seconds flat.

Lydia stared at him. Loki suddenly realized what he was doing. He cleared his throat awkwardly and set the stick down on the floor. "Um, thanks." he said.

Lydia just blinked. "Do you always eat like that?"

Loki frowned. "No. Only when I'm starving."

"Oh. Well, you could have asked for food earlier."

Suddenly there was another crash from where Tony was. Loki turned to look and saw him laying on the pile of books, sprawled out at an odd angle. He pushed himself up off the table, knocking more books off. Lydia flinched.

"I think I should do this outside." Tony said, stomping through the house in clunky metal boots.

"I think so too." Lydia said, standing up quickly.

Syth stood up with her. "Don't destroy the house." she told the Avengers.

Loki wheighed his options: Stay with a room full of Avengers and his brother or go with one Avenger and two girls and have a better chance of escaping if something happened. His choice was clear.

He stood up and followed Lydia out the door. "Don't tell me you're a stalker too." she said teasingly.

"I do not _stalk _people." Loki said.

"I beg to differ." Tony said, his boots especailly loud on the cobble stone path way outside.

"What do you mean?" Loki spat.

"You kind of stalked SHIELD for a while there. You were becoming a pro at it."

Loki sighed. "That's not stalking."

"Then what is it?"

He didn't have an answer for that. He gave Tony a glare.

"That's what I thought. Make way for the King of Stalkers!" Tony cried, and then jumped into the air.

He hovered for a second before falling back to earth. He muttered something to himself and stood back up.

Loki crossed his arms, looking annoyed. The mortal clothes he was wearing were rubbing on his skin the wrong way it was bothering him.

Lydia jabbed him in the side. "What?" he hissed.

"Are you okay? You look... Constipated."

Loki pursed his lips. "I'm fine." he hissed.

"Then loosen up. You're embarassing me."

Tony launched into the air again. He hovered about three feet off the ground and then continued to rise until he was at least twenty feet in the air.

People began rushing over to watch, looking up at him and pointing.

"What is he doing?"

"How is he doing that?"

"What's going on?"

"I wanna turn!"

"Did you make that, Syth?"

Syth shook her head. "Nope. He did it." she smiled.

Tony floated back down to earth and cut the power from the gems. He landed on the ground, a smile spread across his face.

Suddenly, he was swarmed with people.

"How did you do that?"

"Can I try?"

"Will you teach me how to make that?"

"That was amazing!"

"What's your name lad? I'd like to sign you up for the companions!"

"I can't believe you were flying!"

Tony put up his hands. "Please people, one question at a time."

"How did you do that?" someone asked.

"Skill." he answered, flashing a smile.

"Will you teach me how to make it?" someone else asked.

"Sorry. Trade secret."

"Do you think I could try?" yet another question.

Tony shrugged. "I don't think so. It takes a lot of skill and practice to be able to manuever it correctly without crashing."

Loki rolled his eyes. Mr. Tony Stark. Center of attention wherever he went. _He _should be the one people were fawning over. Not that pathetic mortal in a few pieces of armor.

Right as someone was asking for Tony's autograph, Lydia pulled Loki away. She led him around the back side of the house before he noticed. "What are you doing?" he cried.

"What am _I _doing? What are _you _doing?" she practically shouted.

"I haven't done anything! If you want to talk about things you shouldn't do, you should be talking to Stark out there! He's the one getting all the attention!"

Lydia crossed her arms. "Syth does the same thing. I have to deal with it, so do you. But that doesn't mean you have to freak out like that!"

"I wasn't freaking out!"

"I know, not on purpose. But I saw you when you broke from the ropes, your eyes were red. They were starting to get red now. If you do that much more, people are going to think you're a vampire! And trust me, people around here don't take to kindly to vampires." she said.

Loki's mouth fell open. He thought he had gotten control of that. He looked at his hands. They were shaking, but still his normal pale white color. He rubbed his hands together nervously. "Are they normal now?" he asked.

Lydia looked up at his eyes. Loki stared down at her. There was an awkward moment where neither of them said anything. They just stared each other in the eyes.

Suddenly, Lydia shook herself. "Yeah. Yeah, they're back to normal." she looked at the ground.

Loki looked away quickly. "Good."

Another awkward moment of silence.

"Um, so, you're not a vampire, right?" Lydia asked.

She didn't really help the awkwardness. "No. Vampires don't exist." Loki said firmly.

"Yes they do." she said.

"Um... No. No they don't."

"Yes, actually, they do."

"Do you have any proof?" he asked.

Lydia rolled up her left sleeve and turned her arm over. On her forearm, clear as day, were two small holes. They were just pinpricks, but they couldn't have been anything else. Two fangs.

Loki took a step backwards involuntarily. Lydia rolled her sleeve back down. "Don't worry, I'm not a vampire. That only happens if they inject poison. This one was just hungry."

Loki found all of this rather... disgusting. He shook his head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to gross you out." she said.

He looked at her. Somehow, a smile found its way onto his face. "No. No it's fine. I've seen worse." he said.

She looked relieved. "Okay, I was just-"

Syth poked her head around the back of the house. "What are you doing?" she asked.

Loki wondered how long she had been there. "Um... Nothing." Lydia said, scuffing her feet a little.

Syth rolled her eyes. "Sure. Well, come inside, we're gonna have dinner soon."

Loki followed Lydia back into the house, where the rest of the Avengers were. Loki sat down by the fire and Lydia sat across from him, staring into the flames. She kept rubbing her arm where she showed him the bite. He shivered.

Syth sat next to Lydia. Tony was talking to Bruce about something, Clint and Thor were having a thumb wrestle, and Steve and Natasha were roasting fish. Loki sat alone. He didn't care much. At least, that's what he told himself.

Every once in a while, he would look up, and he would see Lydia staring at him. As soon as he saw though, she would look down and become extrememly interested in her shoes. He tried to ignore it, but he couldn't help but get this strange feeling everytime he noticed. It was a warm one that spread through out him. It was one he hadn't ever felt before.

Bruce came over and sat down with Thor and Clint. He watched the thumb wrestle with amusement. Tony sat on the table alone, tinkering. He had taken one of the many rings lying around and was trying to put it into his glove. Syth was staring off into space, thinking about who knows what.

The only noise was the fire crackling and the occasional sound of metal hitting metal from where Tony was sitting.

Then, suddenly, there was a loud knocking on the door. Lydia jumped up and ran to it. She opened it just a crack and saw a woman. "I need to talk to Syth. Is she here?" she asked.

"Um..." Lydia turned and looked at Syth, who nodded. "Yeah. Come on in."

"Adrianne! What's up?" Syth asked.

Adrianne wrung her hands. Her brown hair fell over her shoulders. "It's the people. I've heard them talking about you. Not in a good way." she said.

"Oh. How bad is it?"

"Pretty bad. And they don't like you guests here either."  
Tony looked up from where he was drilling something into his boot.

"Mr. Perfect Nord over there and then the Flying Man. They don't like it." Adrianne said quietly.

"They seemed to like Flying Man pretty well when we were out there." Syth said.

"Yeah, but that was the younger part of Whiterun. The older part... They think something fishy is going on."

Syth shrugged. "Maybe there is. I don't know."

"I also heard something about your black haired friend over there." she nodded towards Loki.

Lydia stiffened.

"What exactly?" Syth asked, sounding worried.

"Just rumors. But I don't like it. I think they're going to do something soon."

"Do what?"

"I don't know. Something not very nice."

Syth stood up. "Then, would you mind keeping the house for me while I'm gone?" she said.

"Are we leaving?" Lydia asked.

"Looks like we have too."

"It would be my pleasure. Take as long as you like." Adrianne said.

Syth smiled. She turned to everybody else. "Get packed. We leave in five minutes."

Adrianne turned her around. "Just, promise me you'll be safe."

"Of course. I'm the Dragonborn. I'm always safe."

Adrianne wrapped her arms around Syth. "I don't want to lose you. You're one of the best friends I've ever had." she whispered.

Syth hugged her back, and then broke the embrace. "Gotta pack. See ya."

Adrianne just stood there for a minute before smiling.

In a matter of minutes, everybody was ready to go. Each of them was bringing a small package of food (Syth said they'd be hunting on the way), slightly warmer clothes if they weren't already warm, and a weapon of their choice.

"Bye Adrianne. Take good care of the house. Don't read too much." Syth said, opening the door.

"I think Tony destroyed most of the books anyways." Clint said.

Adrianne gave a forced smile and closed the door behind them. Syth led them to a giant set of wooden gates. The same ones they had come in only a few hours ago.

"Where are we going?" Bruce asked hesitantly.

Syth pushed through the gates, Lydia close on her heels. "I don't know."

"When will we be back?" Lydia asked.

Syth turned to look at her. "Maybe never."


	5. Chapter 5

**This chapter is dedicated to my friend who is moving across the country today :( Idk when you'll read this, but here ya go. Anyways, I promise it'll get more exciting! :) Thanks for reading! Please review! **

Tony didn't know how long they walked for. All he knew was that it was cold. He pulled his hoodie closer to himself and hovered over everybody else. There was no way he was going to walk on the ground when he could fly.

"Can we stop soon?" Lydia asked.

Syth looked around. "I don't see a particularly good camping spot. Do you?"

Lydia looked around at the flat prarie before them. Syth had said that they needed somewhere secluded and hidden to rest. Tony didn't see anything like that.

And apparently neither did Lydia, because she just sighed and watched the ground.

"Maybe Stark could scout ahead to look for a spot." Steve said.

"Maybe. But probably not." Tony said, doing some areal acrobatics.

"I think you should." Syth said. "I'll go with you."

Tony sighed. He landed on the ground and walked down the road, his boots clunking on the ground. They sounded a lot like his original Iron Man suits, much to  
Tony's satisfaction.

Syth caught up with him as the rest of the group collapsed behind them. "Stay hidden!" Syth called before turning back to Tony.

They walked in silence for a bit before Tony spoke. "So what exactly are we looking for?" he asked.

"Umm..." Syth looked around. "A cave. A ruin. A bunch of trees. A hole in the wall. I don't know, whatever would make a good place to make camp."

"Are there a lot of caves around here?" Tony asked skeptically.

"Yeah. There's a lot actually. Practically ever ten miles." she said. "Isn't there where you live?"

He shook his head. "Nope. Caves are so rare they're turned into tourist attractions."

Syth laughed. "That's pretty bad. But, I guess that makes up for it, because most of the ones here are either over run with Falmer, or are haunted or something."

Tony looked at her. "And you want us to spend the night in one."

"We can clear it out first, smart one."

He ignored her and jumped back into the air. He hovered for a while, searching for a spot to settle down for the night. For a while, he didn't see anything. And then, after about five minutes, he saw something in the distance. It looked vaguely like stone archways and crumbling walls. He glanced down at Syth, who was walking along, searching the ground for a cave.

Tony didn't bother to say anything to her and shot off towards the archways. They reminded him of a McDonalds, so he couldn't resist.

Tony had told himself that he'd never fly without his helmet. He had always told himself that it'd be a little too dangerous, even for him. But now that he didn't have a helmet and he was flying anyways... He would never think flying with one was the same again.

The wind whistled through his hair, spiking it up slightly. He tilted his hands a little and he suddenly dropped through the air. Adrenaline pumped through his veins and then, at the last second, when he was skimming the cobblestone pathway, he shot back up into the air. He flew straight up, closing his eyes. He didn't really have to worry about planes or any other aircraft here.

He hovered high above the earth for a few seconds. And then, he cut the power. He dropped like a stone. Shivers raced up his back. If he wasn't awake before, he was now.

Right before he hit the tops of the trees, he brought his hands back to his sides and shot through the air, heading back towards the big arches.

About a minute later, he got there. He landed on one of the taller arches and put his hood on. When he wasn't flying, it was a lot colder.

He crouched and looked down at the ground. There was a small campfire, a couple tents and bedrolls, and at least fifteen people, all heavily armed. He wondered who they were.

He jumped off the arch and hovered down to their camp. Slowly, all their heads turned as he reached the ground. He walked forwards, inspecting their camp. "Would you mind if me and some other people joined you here?" Tony asked.

A couple of the guys exchanged glances. Suddenly, a woman on the other side of him yelled, "First one who kills him gets the armor!"

Tony's eyes widened for a split second before he launched himself back into the air. A couple of the people yelled up at him, shaking their fists. Tony made a face at them before he realized one of them was pulling out a bow.

Now, before he met Clint, he wouldn't have thought bows could do much damage. But now, he thought differently.

The guy with the bow lifted it up and took aim. Luckily, he wasn't near as good as Clint and missed by a long shot. But that didn't mean he would forever. "Shoot him!" one of the women yelled.

Another arrow came flying up at him and Tony deflected it with his glove, knowing full well it would have skewered him.

Tony flew around in the air to confuse them, and then suddenly stopped and raised his gloved hand, sincerely hoping his repulsors were working now.

And what shot out of his hand wasn't quite a repulsor, but it did do just as much damage, if not more. It was like a combination of fire and electricity, and maybe even a little frost, all rolled up into one. It instantly killed the guy with the bow and knocked three other men around him unconcsious.

Tony blinked. One of the woman grabbed her fallen comrades bow and took aim. Tony barely had time to react as the arrow went right by him and took part of his hoodie with it.

Suddenly, Syth raced up the stairs to where they were fighting. Nobody but Tony had noticed her yet. He had noticed that she preffered to have the element of surprise; to just appear behind you and slit your throat. So Tony kept his mouth shut and tried to not look so obvious.

Syth drew two knives and approached one of the men shaking his fist at Tony. She came up behind him and suddenly, with a quick slash of her knives, he was down. And nobody had noticed yet.

She came up behind someone else, treading lightly, and did the same to them.

Another arrow flew at Tony and he barely managed to dodge it. Arrow after arrow came hurtling at him. He dodged most of them. A couple of them skimmed his leg, ripping up his pant legs. But he got away mostly unscathed.

Then, when the woman ran out of arrows and Syth had silently take out five of the guys, everybody noticed her.

Syth suddenly put her daggers away and yanked out her swords. Tony made a mad dash for the ground and and started firing his bolts of... whatever it was, around at everybody.

At one point, Syth and Tony were back to back, deflecting hits for the other. Tony fired off his repulsor things at people rushing at her, and Syth would suddenly appear in front of Tony to protect him from a guy coming at him he hadn't noticed.

Syth dropped a kick in one of the guys stomachs and Tony shot another in the feet. Finally, there were only two left. Syth drove her sword through one of them and Tony punched the other in the jaw. Syth finished him off and swung her swords around. She put them back in their scabbard and came up to Tony.

His face was flushed and he was breathing heavily. But the tiniest hint of a smile was on his face. The adrenaline rush from the attack was something he enjoyed, even if he tried to hide it.

"Well," Syth said, trying to catch her breath. "you hold up pretty well in a fight."

Tony shrugged. "You too. Been in my fair share of them. Probably more than you." he teased.

"Oh I doubt that." she said, smiling.

A smirk played on Tony's lips. "We'll see. Anyways, who were those guys?"

"Just bandits. They like to hang out in ruins and forts and things."

"You could have told me that."

She crossed her arms. "I didn't expect you to go wandering off by yourself in a place you've never been before."

"You need to stop _expecting _things from me. I make a point to be unpredictable."

Syth laughed. "I'll be sure to remember that."

Tony turned and looked around. He saw a set of stairs to his right leading up to a large wooden door. Without looking back to see if Syth was following, he made his way up them.

Syth trotted up behind him. "What are you doing?" she asked. "You should fly back to everybody else and tell them we found a place to camp."

Tony ignored her and walked up to the door. He tried it, but it was locked. Syth rolled her eyes. "Tony, you need to go back and tell the others."

Tony cast a glance back at her. "Why don't you go tell them? I'm a little busy."

"Seeing as how _you _have the flying gear..." she trailed off.

"Point taken. They can wait until I get this door open."

Syth sighed. "Try a lockpick." she pressed one into his hand.

Tony looked at the slender piece of metal. "Do these work?" he asked.

"Yeah. If it didn't I wouldn't have given it to you." She took out of his hand again and went to work with the lock. "I can't believe you've never used one of these before."

Tony watched as her hands gently clicked the lock into place and door opened. He blinked. "That _is _a little quieter than blowing the door up." he said.

Syth smirked and stepped into the ruin. Inside looked more comfortable than Tony had expected. There was cots and bedrolls set up, another fire crackling warmly in the middle of the room, and a cooking pot over the fire. A chest sat on the other side of the room and a fallen end table laid next to it. "I think we should sleep in here instead." Syth said.

Tony nodded. "Cozy."

Syth laughed. "Oh yeah. Sleeping in the ruins with the possibility or Draguar is cozy."

"Draguar?"

She smiled. "Oh yeah. I keep forgetting you have no clue what anything is around here. It's like I could show you some cheese, and you'd be like, what's that?!" she laughed at her own joke.

"I don't know what cheese is." Tony said with a straight face.

Syth stopped laughing. "You're serious?"

"No. Now what's a Draguar?" he pronounced the word with difficulty.

"Draguar. They roam the halls of Skyrim's ruins, waiting for their prey. Ready to pounce at any given moment." she said dramatically.

"So... They're like a tiger?"

"No I was kidding. They're more like... um..." she searched for something to compare it too. "You do know what a zombie is, right?"

"Yeah, who doesn't?"

She shrugged. "People who don't know what cheese is. A Draguar is kind of like that, but its more like a weird skeleton thing with a little bits of zombie."

"That's comforting."

"Yeah. But, they don't try to eat your brains." Syth said cheerfully. "They just try to gut you with giant swords. Oh and don't let them shout at you. They can knock you back with their voice. Like me."

Tony frowned. He was looking forward to the night less and less. He couldn't tell if she was messing with him, but she hadn't said anything that wasn't true yet. He hadn't expected to find any ruins because they were so rare in his world, but he had found some almost right away. He hadn't expected a dragon, but one had showed up. He guessed that these 'Draguar' things were possible.

Tony decided he had had enough of the ruins and walked back outside. A tiny bit of snow had started to fall. He looked up at the sky. Clouds had been gathering again ever since Syth had made them disappear earlier in the day.

Syth walked out behind him. "Does it snow much where you live?" she asked.

Tony thought about his home in sunny Malibu, California. He shook his head. "Not really. I live on the coast. I get more sun than anything."

Syth sighed. "Is it warm?"

Tony smirked a little. "It's like seventy degrees in late fall."

Syth sighed. "Must be nice."

He shrugged. Syth started walking back down the stairs. Tony fell in behind her, his boots clunking around on the stairs.

Suddenly, Syth tripped and fell backwards. She let out a quick breath as strong hands caught her.

Tony helped her up. There was an awkward moment of silence. Syth seemed to realize that she, the all powerful amazing Dragonborn, had tripped over her own feet. She cleared her throat and dusted herself off awkwardly. She lit up like a christmas tree. "Sorry." she muttered.

Tony smirked to himself and kept walking. "So do you wanna stay here? I'll go tell the rest." he said.

Syth nodded quickly. "That would, um, that'd be good." she stammered.

Tony shook his head, still smiling. "Be right back."

He placed his feet together and his hands at his sides. He shot into the air, flames sprouting from his hands and feet. He flew away into the sky, feeling the cold air sting his face. He filled his lungs with the crisp air as he shot through it. He did a somersault, enjoying the feeling. He had hardly ever felt this loose and free.

Finally, he saw the little tiny camp of people. He landed behind right behind Steve.

Clint turned around. "That took forever and a half." he muttered.

"Did you find somewhere?" Lydia asked, looking hopeful.

Tony nodded. "Yeah. There's a group of ruins up that way. Syth told me to come get you."

Natasha shivered. "Finally. We get to get out of this cold."

"It's not that cold." Loki said quietly.

Lydia snickered. "No, it's not, really."

"Yes it is." Natasha said.

Thor shook his head. "I have to agree with my brother."

"You always agree with your brother."

Thor looked hurt.

"It's actually not that cold." Steve said.

"That's because you're a Capsicle. Cold is in your blood." Tony said, keeping his face straight.

Steve sighed.

"I agree with you." Bruce told Natasha.

She smiled. "Thank you."

"Let's go then. I'm still super tired." Lydia mumbled.

Tony launched back into the air. "Aren't you going to stay down here and tell us where to go?" Steve asked.

"Tell me," Tony said, assuming a look of mock thoughtfulness. "If you could fly instead of walk, would you walk?"

Steve thought about this. "If it was helping my friends, I would walk."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Oh right. I forgot you're the thoughtless Captain America. Right then. Carry on." Tony waved him away.

The little group headed for the ruins. The sun had finally set. It was probably the longest day Tony had ever had.

Every once in a while, Tony would look down at the group. Most of the time, he just flew and trusted that they were following him. And if not, they were the ones lost, not him.

But, the funny thing was, almost everytime he looked down, Loki was staring straight ahead at something. And when Tony followed his line of sight, it was straight at Lydia. Tony figured he was either trying to figure out how to scalp her, or was thinking of something else. His face did look... softer.

Not that he cared. Tony just wanted to get to the ruins, go to sleep, and hopefully wake back up at home.

Not that there was much waiting for him at home. In fact, the more he thought about it, the less he really looked forward to getting home. He had all of his stuff to tinker with, but Pepper was gone. She had found someone else.

Tony pushed that thought out of mind. He looked back down at the group again. This time, Loki was staring at the ground, hands in his pockets. Tony sighed. He wanted to go faster. This pace was deathly slow. He did a few flips in the air, bored out of his mind.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, they were at the ruins. Syth was sharpening one of her knives on a rock she had found. When she saw the group, she waved them over. "There's a spot to sleep inside. Come on." she said.

It was pitch black now. They could hardly see anything, and most of the light came from the flames coming from Tony's armor, or any light reflecting off the snow.

The walked to the door and Syth opened it. The wind had picked up and it was blowing the snow into everybodys eyes.

When everybody was inside, Tony landed and found a bedroll. Syth called one of the tents, saying that she was the Dragonborn, so she deserved it. Tony came up to her and told her that he should get it because he was Iron Man.

"Who's Iron Man? What kind of a name is that?" she asked.

"I'm a superhero. Dur." he said.

"So you named yourself _Iron Man_?"

"No. Society did. And the longer you use it, the better it sounds. Now I get the tent." he said.

"Nope. Beat it."

They argued for a while until Clint came up and shoved them both away, claiming it for his own.

Finally, when everybody had found a place to sleep, Tony settled down. He closed his eyes and let his body relax. It was the first time since he had woken up in this cursed place. He didn't dare take his armor off; who knew what would sneak in here at night. But now, all he worried about, was sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**Thanks for reading guys! I really enjoy writing this story :) Please read and review! **

Loki sat by the fire, wide awake, staring into the flames. He had never gone to sleep. He had laid down and pretended to be sleeping, but after an hour or so, he figured that there was no way he would be able to sleep. So he didn't try.

He sighed, glancing at his hands. He had been having a harder and harder time controlling the frost giant side of him. He didn't know why. Something about this land made it more difficult.

He pulled the sleeves of his jacket over his hands and let out a breath. He glanced around the room, looking at all the sleeping bodies. His brother was out cold, snoring like a dinosaur that had been let loose.

He let his eyes drift around the room, until they landed on Lydia. Something warm filled his chest. He didn't know what it was. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before. But, he liked it.

Lydia let out a contented sigh and rolled over in her bed roll. Loki looked back into the flames, trying to stop the smile that had crept onto his face. It was some retarded smile that he had never had before. He felt like a little kid again. The little kid that would play games and not care how badly he lost. He shook his head. He would _not _allow himself to get soft. All he needed was to get out of this land and back to Asgard.

But for what? He was stuck in a cell there. Sometimes they let him out to wander around, but under strict supervision. It was boring and lonely there. And now he had an entire new land at his fingertips. But, no matter how hard he tried to convince himself that he wanted to stay here, part of him still wanted to see Asgard's tall towers. Even if it was from inside a cell.

Just then, Syth stirred from the other side of the room. Loki quickly laid back down. For some reason, he didn't want to be seen awake when everybody else was asleep, especially since he didn't have a great reputation with _anybody _here.

He heard a groan come from somewhere close by. He closed his eyes, in case somebody decided to get up and stare at him for some reason.

He heard it again. This time there was a short cough right after it. He heard somebody roll over again. Then, there came short, quick breaths. They were raspy and sounded pained.

Natasha woke up suddenly. She looked around. Loki decided he had to know what was going on. He sat up, opening his eyes. Natasha noticed him, but didn't pay much attention.

A second later, Syth hauled herself up. "Is everybody okay?" she asked.

Clint climbed out of his tent. "What's going on?" he asked.

Natasha shook her head in confusion.

A bout of coughing and sputtering filled the room. Syth launched to her feet a split second before Clint. Lydia moaned from her bed roll, hiding her head under the blanket.

Bruce had woken up too. He sat up, hair scraggly and bags under his eyes. He put his glasses on slightly crooked and blinked up at Syth and Clint.

Thats when Loki noticed Tony scrunched into a ball, holding his knees to his chest. His lips were pursed and his eyes squeezed shut.

Clint noticed at the same time and practically dove for him. He rolled him over and Tony opened his eyes. "Are you okay?" Clint asked.

Tony loosened up a little. He struggled to sit up. Syth suddenly appeared on the other side of him, helping him up. "What's wrong?" she asked, her face heavy with worry.

Tony let out a long breath before coughing again. He spat out blood and leaned his head back against the cold stone wall. "I... I need some, uh... Paladium. Wait, no that doesn't work." he muttered.

"What's paladium?" Syth asked, confused.

Tony shook his head. "Nevermind. I just need... um..." he looked around desperately.

Bruce seemed to notice that one of his only friends was hurting. He got up and walked over to him. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"That depends on... on your definition of okay." Tony managed through gritted teeth.

"What do you need?"

"Um..." Tony lifted his shirt part way and clicked something out of place. He flinched and brought it out into the open.

Syth's eyes widened. She had never seen it before. She hadn't even known that he had, whatever that was. "What's that?" she asked.

Loki was curious too. That was what had stopped him before, when he was trying to get Tony to fight for him. But that, thing, had protected him.

"It's a-an arc reactor. It's like, um... well, it keeps me alive." Tony stuttered.

Bruce took it from him and dropped it. Tony jumped and grimaced. "Please don't break it." he said.

"It's hot." Bruce said, picking it back up gingerly.

"It's hot?"  
"Yeah. Didn't you feel it?"

"No, I'm a little busy dying. I have bigger concerns."

"What can I do?" Bruce said, not even taking his remark the least bit offensively.

"I don't know what's wrong with it. I-its never done this before. I literally _just_ switched it a few weeks ago. It shouldn't be having problems like this." Tony said.

Bruce stood up and took it over to the fire so he could see better. Tony closed his eyes, breathing heavily. Concern shown on Syth's face. Loki knew he should say something.

No. He wasn't going to become soft. He had _just _told himself that. And plus, if one of these sorry Avengers was gone... He could try again. And maybe this time, he would succeed. After all, Tony was one of the bigger reasons why he couldn't make it. It would be all the better if he was gone. There was no way he was going to help some pathetic mortal.

Just then, Lydia woke up. She stretched and yawned. She rubbed her eyes. She looked around, and her mouth dropped open. "What's going on?" she asked.

Syth was speechless. She couldn't tell Lydia what was happening this time. Bruce looked up. "Tony's dying. Unless, you can tell me what's wrong with this?" he asked.

Lydia shook her head. "I don't even know what that thing is." she said. "But he's dying?!"

He ignored her and went back to working with the arc reactor. Lydia scrambled out of her bed roll and jogged to where Tony was sitting, only half conscious now. "Can I do anything? Can I make some tea? Or broth? Or something?" she asked frantically.

It kind of surprised Syth, because Lydia was always one of those people who wouldn't do thing unless she had to.

Bruce was at a loss. He had no idea what was wrong with it. He just knew that it was overly hot and could have possibly been burning something inside Tony. But he didn't know how to fix that.

Loki glanced back and forth between the arc reactor and Lydia. He had told himself that he wasn't going to help. Why should he? It wasn't his problem.

But the way Lydia talked. She was terrified that Tony wasn't going to make it. And she barely knew him. _Maybe just this once. _Loki thought.

"Can I see it?" he asked, standing up.

Bruce looked startled. He gulped, obviously not trusting him with such a fragile thing. But, he handed it over. "If you do anything..." Bruce warned quietly.

Loki gave him a half smile, remembering what Bruce was capable of. "Don't worry." he said smoothly.

Loki turned the arc reactor over in his hands. He almost just dropped it in the fire and said, "Too bad". But he didn't. It was amazing to hold someones life force in your hands. It fascinated Loki. But he had a job to do.

His fingers quickly found the source of the heat. It was deep inside the core, but that didn't matter. He closed his eyes, his hand hovering just barely over the top of it. He concentrated, and a second later, he could feel veins of cold seeping into the arc reactor.

Bruce's eyes widened. "What are you doing?" he asked.

Loki ignored him. The arc reactor slowly became a brighter blue. Bruce took a step forward, like he was going to try and stop him. Loki concentrated harder, trying to get the cold to flow through it faster. He had hit a rough spot in the center. It was like it was _creating_ heat.

Bruce started walking towards him, looking a little nervous. "Okay, that's enough." he said, reaching out to take it.

Loki opened his eyes. "Do you want to save your friend's miserable life?" he asked.

Bruce frowned. Suddenly, the cold exploded inside the arc reactor, turning it so bright it lit up the entire room. Loki blinked and looked away, his eyes burning. Bruce put up a hand to shield his eyes.

"Here, take it." Loki muttered.

Bruce almost dropped it again, much to Loki's amusement. He took it back over to Tony, who desperately needed it.

All the color had drained from his face and his eyes were closed. His body was limp, like he was asleep. Syth was gripping his hand, looking extrememly worried.

Bruce held up the arc reactor. He didn't know how it went in. "Tony, wake up." he said.

He didn't move.

"Come on, get up. I think your arc reactor might be fixed."

Still nothing.

Lydia chewed her lower lip. Then, "GET UP YOU LOUSY PIECE OF TRASH!" she screamed into his ear.

Tony jumped up onto his feet and almost plowed right into Bruce. Now Thor and Steve were awake too. "What's going on?" Steve cried, arms up, ready to protect himself.

Thor still looked like he was asleep. His eyes were glazed over and his blond hair was a rats nest. "Is everybody... Alright?" he asked, only partly awake.

Tony took in a deep breath. He grabbed the arc reactor from Bruce and clicked it back into his chest. He groaned and fell back to his knees. Color filled his face again. He shook his head. "Why... Why does it always taste like coconut?" he muttered, barely audible.

"Are you okay?" Bruce asked.

Tony let out a slow breath. "Y-yeah. I'm okay now. What'd you do?" he asked.

Bruce shook his head. "I didn't." he gestured to Loki. "He did."

Suddenly, a look of pure horror flashed across Tony's face. And then it was gone, almost as soon as it had appeared. "You let _him _try to fix it?" he asked quietly.

Bruce faltered. "It was either that or I let you die... And even if there was a small chance, I had to take it."

Tony glanced up at Loki. Loki looked away. There wasn't anything to say after all. Tony just shook his head and looked away too. Bruce seemed embarassed that he couldn't fix it on his own. He was supposed to be one of the smartest guys there.

Syth straightened up. "Lydia, what time is it?" she asked.

Lydia sighed. "How am I supposed to know?"

"Go outside and check."

"I don't want to."

"What the heck? Just a second ago, you were willing to practically be Tony's servant. And you're supposed to be my... uh..."

"Housecarl." Lydia supplied.

"Right. That. But now you won't even check what time it is?" Syth cried.

"That was different. He was dying. You're not."

Syth groaned. "How did I get stuck with _you_?"

"Because you're a lucky girl." Lydia flashed a smile.

Syth rolled her eyes and ignored her. "Well, whatever time it is, we should head out."

"Where are we going?" Tony asked.

"To Winterhold. I figure that you probably want to figure out how to get back home. Winterhold has a college full of mages. I'm sure one of them will at least have an idea on how to get you started. Get your stuff together. We leave in five." she said.

Tony wasn't used to be being bossed around. He didn't really care for it. But, he did as she said. This time.

"I want to go back to sleep." Lydia complained.

Syth shot her a look. "If you can sleep walk, be my guest."

Lydia let out a long, loud sigh,but didn't answer.

Loki gathered up his bag of food and stuffed his bed roll into it too. He might want it later. He pulled out an apple and started eating it. He bit down into it and the sweet juices filled his mouth. Apples were his favorite mortal food. Maybe even his favorite food in general. Except for those delicious Snickers bars, of course. Those were pretty much heaven in a little wrapper.

He picked up his hoodie that he had taken off that night and slipped it on. At first, he had hated these mortal clothes. But now that he had been in them for a while, he had grown to like them. Although he would never admit it. He didn't feel near as safe in them, but they were a lot lighter. He could move around faster and they were actually pretty comfortable. But, if anybody ever asked him, he would hate them. Obviously.

He shouldered his package of food and started heading for the door ahead of the rest of the group. He stood in the doorway, looking out at the snow falling around. The landscape was beautiful. The sky was clear, so he could see for miles. The hills rolled out before him, like a crumpled up blanket. A pathway snaked down between them, heading for little houses and towns. He closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath of the cold air.

Syth pushed out behind him. "You're sort of in the way." she said as the rest of the Avengers squeezed by him.

Loki frowned and took a step forward. Lydia walked out and bumped him. Her finger tips brushed his and she took another step. "Sorry." she muttered, not sounding very sorry.

Loki just looked at her. He almost just took her hand and didn't let go. He didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He watched her as she rearranged her pack on her shoulder. The way she fingered a bracelet around her wrist. The way she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. The way she walked.

Loki shook himself. What the heck was he thinking? He was going soft. He mentally slapped himself. This was stupid.

He pushed past everybody and started heading down the path. Tony launched into the air, doing little circles. Loki turned down the path and kept walking. "Um, you're going the wrong way." Syth called after him.

Loki lit up like a Christmas tree. There was no way he was going to admit that he didn't know where he was going, but he turned and walked back anyways. "Fine. Where're we going?" he asked.

Syth had a map pulled out. She stared down at it, her jet black hair hanging in front of her face. "Well, sadly, Winterhold is on the other side of Skyrim." she said.

Tony sighed loudly above them. Lydia kicked a rock off the edge of the stairs. "Can't we get a carriage?" she asked.

Syth shot a warning glance at her. "No." she said firmly.

"Right. Sorry."

Loki looked back and forth between them. There was something that they weren't telling him. He was determined to find out what it was.

Lydia became very interested in her boots. Syth started planning the best way to get to Winterhold, with Tony cutting in every once in a while, saying that it was a bad idea and they should go a different way. Then Steve and Natasha had to add in their opinion. So then, Clint and Thor had a thumb wrestle. And Bruce watched, smiling a little bit.

Loki looked over at Lydia. He felt a sudden urge to just... stand by her. He didn't know why. His legs moved forward. Subconsciously, he placed himself by her. He stared off into the distance as she looked up at him. She didn't say anything. She just looked out over the horizon with him. They didn't talk at all.

Finally, after everybody had agreed on a route to take, they started walking. Nobody really noticed Lydia and Loki standing together, except for Syth. She nudged Lydia in the side, a grin spreading across her face.

Tony flew above them, doing barrell rolls and mid air somersualts. Loki ignored him as much as possible and just kept walking.

For a long time, everything was silent. The only problem they came across was rabid wolves that decided they wanted to eat people for their supper. They weren't that hard to kill though. Especially with crazy attacks with swords and knives Syth and Lydia seemed to have mastered. They were practically twins, except for how they looked. It was like they could tell when the other was going to do something and they would do something that would double or triple the damage. They could protect each other easily. They were a killing _machine_. Loki would hate to get on their bad side, frost giant or not.

Then, after they had been walking for almost three hours, and after Lydia had practically begged everybody's ears off to stop, Syth called for a break. Lydia literally fell down onto the ground, dramatically clutching her chest and gasping for air. Loki stiffled a laugh.

"You're such a wimp." Syth laughed.

"You wanna test that?" Lydia teased.

"Bring it missy."

"Don't call me missy!" Lydia shrieked.

Syth practically fell over laughing. Syth pushed her onto the ground and frowned. "Thanks." she said sarcastically.

Tony landed. "Why are we stopped?" he asked. He looked over at Syth, who was laying on the road, trying to breathe. "Is she okay?"

"Unfourtunately, yes." Lydia scowled.

"Alrighty then. Anyways, why are we stopped again?"

"Because some of us have to use our legs." Steve said.

Tony rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry you couldn't build something like this. Actually, no I'm not. Because you said yourself that you probably wouldn't use it. And therefore, it'd be a waste of materials." he said.

Steve ignored him and went back to watching the third round of thumb wrestling that had started between Clint and Thor.

Syth pushed herself up off the ground, a smile still plastered to her face. Tony frowned. "Well... Where are we exactly?"

"Just don't ask if we're there yet." Syth said.

"Are we there yet?" Lydia asked immediately.

Syth grimaced and unfolded her map. She pointed to a little spot on it. Loki peered over her shoulder. There were little markings and drawings scattered all over the map. Some of them were little x's, which immediately caught Tony's and Loki's attention.

"We're right about here. So we've walked..." she thought for a second. "Four miles."

"What?!" Lydia cried. "That's it?"

Syth nodded. "It's not like we have horses or anything."

"No. No horses." Tony said suddenly.

"What's wrong with horses?" Loki asked.

"Why would I want to ride something with a mind of its own?"

"You let that robot person drive your suits." Loki countered.

"Jarvis? No I don't. He just takes care of the little details. I'm fully in control. Unlike with horses." Tony shuddered.

Loki blinked. He shook his head and looked back at the map. "That's actually pretty good time." Syth said. "Four miles in three hours. I mean, for having such a big group. I go a lot faster when I'm alone, but with this many people, this is pretty good." she said.

Loki looked up and practically jumped out of his socks. Standing nearby, was somebody new. At least, he thought it was a somebody. It might have been a _something _too.

He stood up like a human, had the same posture as a human, but had a face like a cat. He smiled when he saw Loki looking at him, showing many sharp, feline teeth. Lydia turned around and her eyes widened.

Syth looked up. "Hey there. What's up?" she asked, putting her map away.

The cat person smiled again. "M'aiq is glad to see you." he said.

"Well I'm glad to see you too." Syth said, smiling. "It's been a while."

"Ah, it has." he said simply.

"Any new rumors I haven't heard yet?" Syth asked.

M'aiq looked thoughtful. "Not necesarily rumors. But M'aiq knows more than he did."

"Like what?"

"I know about your friends here." he said, nodding towards Tony and Loki. Loki stiffened and shiver ran through him.

"What about them?" Syth asked.

Suddenly, the atmosphere around them didn't seem so friendly. "I know who they are. And who you are... Nightspawn." he said queitly.

Syth went rigid. "M'aiq... I think it's time for you to leave."

The cat person nodded and walked away down the road, leaving them in a cold silence. What exactly did he know?


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry it took so long guys! I swear I had a good reason. ANYWAYS, its a little bit longer than normal, just a little. So enjoy! Read and review! :) **

Tony landed in the little clearing, blowing leaves away as he touched the ground. He took a few steps forward and his heart fell. He pursed his lips and launched back into the air, doing a barrel roll before spotting another clearing. He dove for the ground and brought his feet underneath him at last minute. But this time, the trees were too close together. He sighed and rocketed back into the air. He kept doing this for a while, until he found a perfect little clearing.

Well, perfect would be saying a lot. But, it would work as a spot to sleep for the night. He started moving some of the bigger rocks out of the way until the rest of the group got there. By the time they had the rocks moved and the food ready to eat, they realized that they didn't have a campfire.

"You have _got _to be kidding me." Syth muttered to herself, kicking a pile of rocks that were in the center of the clearing.

Steve stood up. "Do you want me to go get some fire wood?" he asked.

Syth raised an eyebrow. "You're asking, if you want me to send you out into a forest you know nothing about with only a dinky wooden shield to protect you?"

Steve hesitated, and then nodded. "I am."

"Oh yes. Sure. I'll let you do that." she rolled her eyes.

Steve picked up his shield before he registered the sarcasm in her voice. He frowned. "I'm perfectly capable of protecting myself." he said.

"The creatures in this forest will skin you alive. I'll go. And so will Lydia."

"I will?" Lydia asked suddenly.

Syth nodded. Tony decided that he didn't want to hang out at the campsite with a pouty Steve. "I'll go too." he said.

Syth turned. "What? No. Two is plenty." she said.

"I'm going to come too." Loki said.

Lydia's eyes widened. Syth frowned. "Four people to go get firewood?" she asked.

"Well, you could always leave me here..." Lydia said hopefully.

"No. You have to come."

"Why?"

"According to your oath thingy, it's your _duty _to protect me."

"You said yourself that you didn't need protecting." Lydia said, sighing.

"But it's also in your oath to carry my burdens. In this case, fire wood." Syth said.

Lydia groaned before standing up. Syth turned to Tony and Loki. "You guys can stay here. We don't need you." she said firmly.

Loki gave a slight smile. "If you want to try and stop us..."

Tony cast a weird glance at the frost giant. He looked back at Syth. "Just let me come. You won't have to take as many trips this way." he said, trying to sound convincing.

She let out a long, over exageratted sigh. "Fine. But if you guys are too loud..."

"She hates it when people step on too many branches." Lydia advised.

Syth turned to her. "I do not!"

"Yes. You do. You hate it so much you've sent me home because I had stepped on a twig after I had walked like, fifty miles with you. Do you know how long that walk was?" she cried.

"Well, maybe it was because you were stomping and complaining... And it attracted wisps and ice wraiths. Oh, and lets not forget the _Master Necromancer_."

"Girls! Calm down! You're both pretty." Clint called over from where he was sitting.

Syth and Lydia froze. Natasha stared daggers at Clint, who was completely oblivious.

Without looking to see if anybody else was following, Syth stomped into the forest, before making her steps quieter and quieter, until Tony had a hard time telling where she was. Lydia fell in right behind her and followed her steps almost exactly. Tony stepped in front of Loki and started walking as quietly as he could through the leaves, with Loki behind him.

Tony didn't really like Loki behind him. He couldn't see if he was about to do anything funny. And he didn't understand why they had to be so quiet. It wasn't like they were on some dangerous mission. They were just getting firewood.

They weren't ten minutes into the forest when Syth suddenly hissed, "Get down!"

Lydia dropped to the leafy ground like a stone, and Tony followed her lead, confused. Syth army-crawled along the ground and signaled to Lydia.

Lydia took her bow off of her back. She quietly loaded an arrow and peered down it at some target in the distance. Tony couldn't see what she was looking at, but he hoped it wasn't just a tree. He just wanted to get the firewood, go back to the camp, and huddle around the fire. The sun was going down fast, and the temperature with it. His hoodie was starting to not be warm enough.

Lydia let the arrow fly and Tony heard a thump of something falling to the ground. Loki started to get up, but Syth held up a finger. The forest was completely silent for a long moment. Tony thought for sure that his heart beat was the loudest thing in the forest right then.

But before long, Syth stood up and dusted herself off. Lydia got up too and strapped the bow to her back again. They started making their way through the forest again, looking for firewood. Tony wondered what she had shot, and when they reached the body of what looked vaguely like a troll and Lydia plucked the arrow out of its chest, he decided not to ask.

Loki picked some dry sticks up. "Is this good?" he asked.

Syth glanced back. "Yeah that's perfect! Is there anymore over there?" she asked, running over to where he was standing. Lydia followed her and peered over Loki's shoulder. "Wow dude, you found the jackpot." she said.

She bent over to pick up some of it. Syth and Tony kneeled down at the same time and bonked heads.

Syth gave a small yell, surprised. Tony fell back onto his heels, rubbing his head. A smile spread across his face. "Ladies first." he said.

"That would be you." Syth told him.

Tony glanced at the sticks. It had been a while since he had met somebody that was willing to dish out the sarcasm and jokes as much as he was. He looked back up. "Excuse me?" he asked.

"You act like a lady."

"Think like a boss."

"What?"

"Nothing. Here." he picked up a piece of firewood and handed it to her.

"Gee. Thanks."

Suddenly, Lydia jumped. "Did you hear that?" she asked.

"Hear what?" Loki asked.

Syth looked past him and into the trees. There was a moment of silence. "Someones watching us." she said quietly.

An icy feeling flowed through Tony's veins. He cast a glance over his shoulder. "How do you know?" he asked.

She looked at him. For a second, neither of them moved. So much emotion shown in her eyes. A million stories waiting to be told. She blinked at it was gone. "Practice makes perfect." she said dryly.

Tony looked at the ground. Lydia's hand drifted subconsciously to the hilt of her sword.

"There he is." Syth said.

Tony turned to look, and all the color drained from his face. His heart skipped a beat. A person had just walked out of the trees and into sight. At least, Tony thought it was a person. When he saw the cat person earlier, he had already been surprised. But this time, it was almost weirder.

He had bright, olive green skin. He was blind in one eye and he had scars all over his body. He wasn't wearing a shirt and his hair was tied in a little bun on top his head. He wore leather armor for pants and fur boots. He had deep gouges all across his chest. Blood was splattered on on his arms and hands. His nose looked like a pigs and he had large fang things sticking upwards out of his mouth. And on top of all that, he was weilding two wicked sharp axes.

Lydia and Syth stood up at the same time. "Can I help you?" Syth asked.

The... thing, examined both of the girls. "Aw, well, would you look at that?" his voice sounded like sandpaper and gravel all grinding together. "Two girlies out for a walk in the wrong part of the forest."

Loki and Tony stood up. "Oh, and they brought their _boyfriends _too." the thing taunted.

Lydia turned red, but Syth ignored it. "Is that a challenge?" she asked.

"There isn't much of a challenge fighting girls and their boys." he said, a twisted smile on his lips.

"That's it." Syth said. "I'm gonna end your miserable life."

She took a step forward before Lydia cleared her throat. Syth tensed and scowled. "You're lucky she's here." she spat.

The thing shrugged. "Doesn't matter. I'm gonna kill you all anyways."

Lydia sucked in a quick breath. An instant later Syth rolled out of the way of the axes coming down on top of her. Tony held up his hand to blast the thing but it moved to fast.

Loki dove forward, grappling the things feet and bringing it to the ground. Tony came up and kicked it hard in the jaw with his steel boots. Syth got up, anger still clear on her face. Lydia looked down on the unmoving body. "Is he dead?" Syth asked.

"Maybe unconscious." Tony said.

Syth whipped out a curved, deadly looking blade. She stepped forward and knelt down. "I hate Orcs." she muttered.

"What are you doing?" Tony asked.

"Finishing him. Before he trys to do it to anybody else." she said.

"You really think he would?"

"You obviously don't know Skyrim very well. You have to be careful where you step. Bandits, rogue mages, Necromancers, or people like this could be around any corner."

Tony didn't know what to make of that. But, before he could say anything about it, the Orc thing sprung upwards, knocking Loki and Lydia backwards. Syth rolled out of the way just in time and Tony shot upwards. The Orc growled and started running at Lydia.

She yanked out her sword and blocked the axes an instant before it would have sliced through her. She took a step backwards. Syth noticed and rushed the Orc, weilding two daggers. She jumped silently onto its back and plunged them into his skin.

He let out a yell that would have woken up the nearest city. But apparently the team of Avengers in the camp close by didn't hear it.

Tony rushed the Orc and jumped into the air at the last second, firing off blasts at the Orc's feet.

The Orc shook violently and Syth flew off of his back. She landed with a thud and the breath flew out of her. She rolled backwards and was on her feet a second later.

Lydia pushed forward, hacking and slashing with her greatsword, fighting him in until he was surrounded. The Orc gave another loud yell and swung his axes at her, narrowly missing her left arm. Her eyes widened momentarily and she ducked.

Loki came running at the Orc, his eyes turning bright red. Panic shot through Tony's chest. What was wrong with Loki?

Tony flew back towards the ground, kicking the Orc in the chin as hard as possible. The Orc did a flip backwards and landed on his feet. Tony just blinked. That hadn't gone exactly as planned.

The Orc jumped up and grabbed at Tony's foot. Tony let out a long steady stream of swear words as the thing dragged him towards the ground, a menacing smile on his face.

Suddenly, the Orc gave out another yell as Syth rushed him and sliced the skin on his arms to smithereens, letting Tony go. Tony shot back into the air and aimed his steel gauntlets at the Orc, ready to fire.

Loki appeared behind him and infront of him, and then on all sides of him. Lydia took a step backwards suddenly and Syth looked confused. And so did the Orc.

The Orc rushed one of the Loki figures and simply ran through him. The real Loki that was behind him smothered a laugh. "Everybody falls for that." he said.

Tony had to admit, as much as he hated it, that must have been pretty handy to have around. Blueprints of a new Iron Man suit shot through his head, but he quickly focused on the battle that was going on around him.

Lydia and Syth had become a wirlwind of blades and fists, pummeling the Orc until he had a hard time standing. Tony saw flakes of ice form on the Orc's green skin, pushing him further to the ground. Tony started firing his repulsor wannabes at him too.

A few seconds later, the Orc was laying on the ground again. They had about five seconds of rest before he jumped back up again. Syth and Lydia simultaneously pulled a Matrix move as the axes came swinging over their heads.

Tony shot to the ground and came running up to the Orc. He didn't think; he just _did_. He ran forward, jumped at the last second, and ran up the side of the Orc.

That was one of the longest seconds of his life. His senses were wide awake. Adrenaline pumped into his veins. The smell of the pines and evergreens filled his nostrils. Cold air blew through his hair and stung his lungs. He could see Syth's surprised face and the Aurora Borealis shining brightly above him. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. That was strange. Not that long ago, it had been snowing heavily. And, come to think of it, he hadn't even noticed the Aurora Borealis here before. It had beautiful blues, greens, and even a little purple.

Tony had been to Spain, all over the United States, Afghanistan (not happily), and many other places. But he had never seen the Aurora Borealis. But now, it was here. Wherever here was.

And then, Tony caught back up with what he was doing. Hanging in midair, sideways, his feet pressed against the side of a green skinned person/thing. And he was about to fall. He pushed off the side of the Orc, fire ripping from the bottom of his boots. He shot forward and almost ran right into a tree before shooting Orc yelled again, but somehow stayed on his feet.

Syth ran forward and jumped onto his back again. "Get away!" she shrieked at Lydia.

Lydia knew what was going on, unlike anybody else, and flipped backwards. Literally, _flipped. _She bent over backwards and sprung out of the way.

Syth gave out a yell. Actually, it was more like a shout. She screamed right at the Orcs head. It was three, almost magical sounding words that none of them could quite make out. But, it made the Orc so weak, he fell so his knees. His skin turned a strange mix of purple and green, making him look sicker than he already did, which was saying a lot. Syth hung around his neck, her knife at his throat. She braced herself, ready to cut through.

Then, the Orc shook and she flew off again. She hit a tree and slumped against it, down for the count. Tony flew down, anxiety rising inside him. He surpressed as best he could, not even sure why he was so worried.

The Orc had turned on Syth, raising his axe. He smiled, said a few not so nice things, and then Tony appeared in front of him, blocking the axe with his gloved hand. He dug his heels into the ground and pushed him backwards.

Lydia screamed some kind of unintelligible battle cry and ran at the Orc as fast as she could. She jumped into the air and brought the sword down on his shoulder, creating a huge gash that started spurting blood. Tony's eyes widened. He had never seen a girl fight with as much force as her. That was when Tony noticed Loki smiling ever so slightly, before rushing at the Orc himself.

The Orc turned and bashed Lydia across the head. She almost ducked in time, but he managed to just hit the top of her forehead. Loki ran forward and dove just in time to catch her before she hit the ground. She was dazed, but she wasn't quite knocked out. They both awkwardly stood up and the Orc turned on them. "See? Girls and their boys." he mocked.

He recieved a greatsword blade to the nose.

Syth moaned behind Tony, and he turned, looking at her pale face, her eyes rolled back into her head. "Syth!" he screamed, trying to wake her up.

Her head lolled to the side and Tony turned to see the Orc rasing his fist above Lydia's head again, his nose bleeding badly. Before Tony could move, Loki jumped right in front of her and grabbed the Orc's arms. He strained and gritted his teeth, pushing the Orc backwards.

Syth woke up and stood up shakily. Subconsciously, Tony stepped in front of her and raised his hands, ready to shoot the thing. Syth shook her head and regained her senses. She pushed Tony out of her way, rage flushing her face a deep red.

Lydia shook herself at the same time and took over for Loki. "Allow me." she spat.

Loki took a step backwards, watching as Lydia grabbed hold of the Orc's arm. Then, unlike any girl Tony or Loki had ever seen (except for maybe Natasha), Lydia pushed the Orc to the ground, and then wrenched his wrist an unnaturall way, letting out a loud yell.

Syth rushed forward, knives out, face set in a hard line. "Lydia!" she cried.

Lydia dropped the Orc's arm and kicked him as hard as she could in the stomach. The Orc hunched over momentarily, and Tony saw his chance. He lunged forward, aiming for the Orc's chest.

It was weird. Even though the Orc was only a few inches taller than Loki (who was the tallest of their little group), he seemed so much bigger because he could tear a tree out of the ground if he wanted too.

Tony ran full force into the Orc's chest, knocking him down. The Orc hit the ground with a loud THUD, and Loki lunged at him. He brought iceicles up around the Orc's hands and feet, locking him in place. Syth knelt by him, fingering her knife. Lydia stood by his head, sword point at his throat.

Tony and Loki stood above him, breathing heavily. Loki cast a sidways glance at Tony. Tony looked back at him. In a second, Tony could see all the hatred, love, fear, admiration, and a million other emotions he couldn't name flash through Loki's eyes. And then, the beginnings of a smile formed on his face. It wasn't like the demented, twisted smiles Tony saw so much of during the Battle of New York. It was a sincere, warm and friendly smile. It was definitely not something Tony was used to seeing on Loki's face, and it caught him off guard. But after a second, Tony gave a little half smile. The only kind he was comfortable in sharing with other people.

Syth stared at the Orc. The Orc laughed and spit in her face. Anger shown in her eyes, bright as the sun. But instead, she stood up, put her knife away, and stared the best knife glare Tony had ever seen down at him. "I'd gut your body and feed it to the crows." she said darkly. "Except I don't want to get my hands dirty with your disgusting blood."

"I volunteer." Lydia said simply.

Normally, Tony would have cracked up at the reference that nobody else would have gotten, but he didn't, seeing that the circumstances weren't the greatest.

"Hah!" the Orc spat.

Tony blinked. He had a sudden flash back of a certain Mr. Vanko. _You lose. _He shivered and closed his eyes for a second, before reopening them.

"You're just too scared to kill me yourself. Girls and pathetic Nords will always be the same." the Orc said, blood dripping out of the corner of his mouth, still bubbling up with insane, evil laughter.

And then, in one swift motion Tony never saw coming, Syth whipped around and plunged her knife into the Orc's chest. And at the exact same moment, Lydia drove her sword through his neck. The Orc faltered, losing himself quickly. He let out a rattling breath that seemed to shake the world. Tony's eyes widened momentarily. The Orc opened his mouth to say something, but then his eyes glazed over, and he never spoke again.

Tony's mouth was dry. Not that he didn't hate this guy's guts, but it was one of the most gruesome killings he had ever seen. Except for squishing a spider, or zooming through the insides of some strange alien thing he still didn't understand. He still had nightmares about that. But those were different. They were just weird alien things, almost like animals. Somehow, this was different. But after remembering how the Orc had acted, he didn't feel so bad anymore. It was either they kill him, or he killed them.

Syth stood up wiped the blood off of her knife. Without a word, she picked a beautiful purple flower that was growing nearby and set it on top of the Orc's body. Tony was the only one who noticed though.

Lydia put her sword away and sighed. She looked at everyone around her. "I hate Orcs." Syth said again.

After an hour, they had gathered up enough firewood and had found their way back to the campsite. It was dark and hard to see, and even Syth, who always seemed to know exactly where they were, was completely lost in the woods, until they stumbled across the rest of the Avengers. Literally stumbled. Lydia accedentally tripped over Thor, and somehow he still didn't wake up.

Lydia frowned. "In the way much?" she asked quietly.

"Are they all asleep?" Syth asked increduously.

Loki looked around. "Looks that way."

Tony rubbed his hands together before remembering he was wearing steel gloves. He took in a deep breath. "How? It's too cold to fall asleep."

"They're toughies." Lydia said. "Or they're wimpies. Couldn't wait an hour or two for us to get back."

"Just get a fire going." Syth snapped.

"Oh, _yes _your majesty."

"Just get it done before I make saber cat meat out of you."

Not bothering to help, Tony sat on the ground and waited for Lydia to light the fire. Loki walked over and wordlessly helped her organize the wood in the newly made pit. Lydia held up a hand and a few sparks flitted off her finger tips, immediately setting the wood into a blaze. Tony wondered if all of the people in this land could light things on fire with their bare hands, but he was too cold and grumpy to ask right now. And even though the fire was lit, it wasn't quite warm yet.

Tony scooted forward until he could be singing the hair off his eyebrows. He didn't care though. The little warmth he got from the fire was worth losing a few hairs for.

Syth huffed and sat on the ground. Loki and Lydia did the same. Nobody felt like sleeping. They all huddled around the fire, trying to get warm. After a half an hour, someones stomach growled. Syth looked up. She smiled sheepishly. "Anybody else hungry?" she asked.

"I'm starving. Hand over the meat." Lydia said.

"You have to share." Loki said.

Lydia looked at him. Her face was in a hard set line. "No I don't." she said, her expression unchanging.

"Then I don't have to share either." Syth said, digging some venision and jerky out of her pack.

"Fine. Yes. You can have some." Lydia told Loki.

Loki looked back into the flames. Tony pulled his pack over to himself and took out the first thing he saw. It was a bowl of white shards. It didn't look quite edible, but Syth had said that she only packed food for everybody. Nothing else. He smelled it, and then dipped his finger into them and stuck it in his mouth. It tasted vaguely like spearmint.

"What are you eating?" Lydia asked.

"Um..." Tony looked at the bowl. "I'm not sure..."

Lydia glanced at the bowl. "You're eating ice wraith teeth."

Tony frowned at the bowl in front of him. Syth laughed. "Oops. You probably shouldn't eat those. Find something else." she said.

Tony smirked a little. "Are you trying to poison me?"

Syth raised her eyebrow. "Am I?"

Tony shook his head, still smiling and put the bowl down. He took something else out of his bag. It was a bowl of something else. He smelled it again, and this time it smelled a lot like cheese. Tasted a lot like cheese too.

Lydia munched away at some jerky and Syth was crunching on an apple. Loki was eating a gigantic plate of venision and enjoying every bite of it.

"Is that mammoth cheese?" Lydia asked suddenly, looking at Tony.

"What?" he asked.

"Mammoth cheese. It's _so _good and everytime we go out and get some, Syth never lets me have any." she complained.

"Um... What's mammoth cheese made out of?" he asked, suddenly wary that he was eating something he might not want to.

Syth laughed again. "You people are hilarious. It's just cheese. Giants feed it to their mammoths. It's deliscious. And it's all mine, because _I'm _the only one who kills the giants." she said pointedly.

Lydia stuck her tongue out. Tony decided he didn't really have much of an appetite anymore and just sat by the fire, watching everybody else eat.

They were silent for a long time. Lydia seemed uncomfortable in the silence, constantly fidgeting after she had finished her dinner. "So..." she began, trying to start conversation. "This is kind of like bonding time for the four of us..." her eyes momentarily flitted to Loki, who was completely oblivious.

Syth looked up from her second piece of bread. "Bonding?" she asked. "Really?"

"Oh come on. If you actually think about it, I know nothing about you guys." Lydia said to Tony and Loki.

"I don't know much about you guys either." Tony said.

"Nobody else is awake... Time for campfire stories!" she said.

Syth rolled her eyes. "Once upon a time, there was a girl who wouldn't shut up. So an assassin came and killed her." she said dryly.

"Wow. Thanks. I just feel like we should get to know each other a little bit."

"Know what?" Tony asked.

"Um..." Lydia glanced around. "How you guys got so good at fighting?" she tried.

Tony and Loki spontaneously started laughing at the exact same time. "Oh, we have stories for you." Loki said, still laughing.

Tony fell onto his back. "What's funny?" Lydia asked.

"They're men." Syth said simply.

Tony sat back up, a smirk plastered to his face. Then he pursed his lips. "But I could fight before I met you." he said in all seriousness to Loki.

"Oh sure." Loki said. "I _taught _you to fight."

Tony chuckled. "No, you didn't."

"Well what happened before New York?"

"Lot's of things that involved fighting and not you."

Loki just shook his head, trying not to laugh.

Tony didn't know why he found that comment so funny. He was supposed to be wary around Loki and especially reminding him of New York. Tony still had nightmares about the portal and the aliens and everything else. But for some reason, seeing the guy that started it all sit right in front of you, not attacking you; it was hilarious.

"How about you guys? You're pretty dang good at fighting." Tony said.

There was an awkward moment of silence. No laughter that had happened when Lydia had said it. Then, "Oh... That." Lydia said, sadness clear on her face.

Loki glanced at her, worry shining in his eyes for a split second. Syth pursed her lips and started sharpening her dark sword on a rock.

"I-I was raised fighting. I'm pretty sure I was given my first blade when I was three." Lydia said.

"That's earlier than _I _was given one..." Loki said, surprised.

"Earlier than most people were given one." Lydia agreed.

"Why?" Tony asked.

"Well... When I was little, the beginnings of the war were beginning to take place. Sure, Ulfric wasn't _near _old enough to start a rebellion, and General Tullius probably wasn't a general. But the Empire and Skyrim weren't getting along very well. My dad taught me to fight, in case the war ever got bigger, like it did. After mom died by Imperia handsl, he had always expected it. And then, when he was lost..." she trailed off.

"Lost? How?" Loki asked.

"He went to a battle and never came back." she stared into the fire. She looked up. "Why do you care?"

Loki shrugged. "Sometimes, you just need somebody to talk to." he looked pained.

"Talk about an emotionally scarring backstory." Tony said after a minute, forcing a smile.

"Meh." Lydia shrugged. "Not as bad as some of the Nords I've met. I don't remember my mom. My dad was kind of mean. Some of the other Nords I've met lost their mom and dad because of a Dark Brotherhood assassination or like, a horker. That's way worse."

"A horker?" Loki asked.

"They're these big lumbering things that live in the water and on land. They have giant tusks and they make these weird growling noises. They don't have any feet. Just flippers. They're terrifying." Lydia shivered.

"So, like a walrus?" Tony asked.

"I don't know... I guess? Maybe? Whatever they are, they're more terrifying than like, skeletons. Or the Dark Brotherhood."

"What's the Dark Brotherhood?" Tony asked.

"It's a group of assassins that live somewhere hidden in Skyrim. Someone performs the Black Sacrament and a member of the Dark Brotherhood will come arrange a contract to murder someone. And they're really good at it." Lydia said.

"So, they do government work?"

She shook her head violently. "No. They work on their own. They use whatever they can to cause people to fear and respect them." Tony shivered, his own words coming back to haunt him.

"A few of them have signature ways of killing too. Like, they only kill somebody a certain way, or they burn their left ear after they're dead, or something like that. But whenever someone disappears for no apparent reason, it's because of the Dark Brotherhood."

"Or a horker." Loki supplied.

Suddenly, the sad, dark mood lifted off of them. Lydia laughed. Then Syth laughed. Tony smirked. Loki seemed confused. "What?" he asked.

"You know? I think it's time for bed." Syth said. "I'm tired from the stupid Orc and the teary backstory."

Lydia rolled her eyes. "They asked."

"They're mistake."

Loki shrugged. "It was a good story." he said.

"Thank you." she glared at Syth. "_Someone _appreciated it."

"Go to sleep. We have another day of traveling tomorrow." Syth said.

Suddenly, a long, low roar shook the earth. The trees dropped a few of their leaves and the sound burned Tony's ears. There was a flapping noise. And then, rusty words that nobody but Syth seemed to understand. "No!" she shrieked, jumping to her feet.

And then, Clint, Natasha, Thor, Steve, and Bruce all vanished into thin air.


	8. Chapter 8

**So, this is sort of just a fun chapter, so I hope you guys still like it. There's a little Lydoki in this one... Yes. I have couple names for them now, thanks to one of my closest friends (THANK YOU) Sythony is the other one... :) ANYWAYS... I promise some action is coming, so don't go! I had waaaay to much fun with Tony in this chapter btw XD Anyways, thanks for reading :) Oh and invisible cookies to you if you know all the songs! :D**

"I WAKE UP IN THE MORNIN, FEELIN LIKE P DIDDY," Tony sang out.

Loki lifted his head. "What the-" he muttered.

The sun shown down in his eyes and he put his hand up to block it. He looked over at Tony, who was sitting by the fire, same place Syth had left him last night. He held a bottle to his lips and drank. He turned back to Loki. "Are you awake yet?" he asked.

Loki sighed and fell back down. "Shut up. It's too early."

Tony shook his head. "No can do sirry. The lady said I gotta wake you up in fifteen minutes." he spread his arms. "It's been twenty."

Loki rolled his eyes and stood up. "Fine. Yeah. I'm awake. Never sing that song again." he said.

"TICK TOCK ON THE CLOCK..." he trailed off, shrugging and taking another sip.

"Shut up before I throw you into the fire." Loki mumbled.

Tony looked thoughtful. "I could sing another song... I think its called I. Don't. Care."

Loki closed his eyes, trying to remind himself why Tony was like this. It wasn't his fault. Well, it kind of was, but not quite. Last night, when all the rest of the Avengers disappeared, Tony had an anxiety attack. He snapped at everyone and started to break things. And then, when his anxiety started to become too much for his health, Syth found a few bottles of Nord Mead. May not have been the best _tasting _stuff, but it was strong. It had to be strong, because Nords didn't drink pathetic 'Imperial Brew', as they called it. It calmed him down a lot.

"Just shut up." Loki mumbled.

Tony looked away and down at the bottle. He took a deep breath. For a second, Loki could see sadness in his deep brown eyes. Then, he closed his them and downed the rest of the liquid in the bottle. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and sighed. "These Nords sure know how to make... Whatever this is." he said.

Just then, Syth and Lydia appeared out of the brush, holding more firewood. "Meet any Orcs?" Loki asked Lydia.  
Lydia gave a small laugh. "Not this time."

Tony stood up, dropping his bottle to the ground. He walked up to Syth, who dumped the firewood into the pit. "Pepper," he began, putting his face close to hers. He shut his eyes, and then opened them again. "You're hair smells lovely."

"Excuse me?" Syth asked, pushing him away.

"Oh... You're not Pepper. My, deepest apologies... ummm... Syth?"

"Good job. Glad you figured it out." she said sarcastically.

Tony laughed a little, high pitched laugh. "That's 'cause I-I'm smart." he drew out the word smart.

Loki rolled his eyes. "How long will he be like this?"

"Just until the mead wears off." she said.

"Do you feel better at all Tony?" Syth asked.

Tony looked up at her, his mouth hanging part way open. He shut it and blinked a lot. "What?"

"Do feel better than you did yesterday?"

"Oh..." There was a pause as he seemed to regain his senses fully for a moment. He glanced up at the sky, watching the clouds for a second. He forced a smile onto his face and his eyes clouded over again. His face was over colored and he looked back at Syth. "Yeah. All better. Amazing what a little mead can do, huh?" he said.

Syth smiled back half heartedly. "Yeah. It is. Can you cook some food for us?" she asked.

He looked back at her. He blinked slowly. "I-I can't cook Syyyth." he said, saying her name with a weird accent. He broke into a fit of giggles.

Loki closed his eyes. "I think I liked him better before."

"When he was burning all our food and destroying trees?" Lydia asked, raising an eyebrow.

The charred remains of trees lay around the campsite from when Tony had decided that he would take his anger out on them. Loki gave a dark laugh. "Maybe."

"I'll teach you." Syth said, dragging Tony over to the fire.

"Yes m'lady."

"Don't call me that."

"Yes sir."

Loki watched as they sat around the fire. Syth shoved a stick into Tony's hands and helped him roast a pheasant. Tony kept trying to touch her hair and she would swat his hand away.

Loki looked back at Lydia, who was trying to smother a laugh. She cleared her throat. "What?" Loki asked.

She shook her head. "You don't see how that's funny?"

Loki frowned. "How what's funny?"

She looked at him. "You have no sense of humor, do you?"

Loki opened his mouth to respond when Lydia just shook her head again. "Never mind."

Loki watched as she walked over to her pack and started sifting through it. She pulled out a book and started reading. He couldn't quite make out the title, but after reading only a couple sentences, she seemed totally engrossed in it.

Loki glanced back over at Tony and Syth. Syth was holding the stick now and examining the pheasant. She plucked it off the stick and dropped it onto a plate. Tony laughed for some reason and handed her another of the birds.

Loki sat down on the ground alone. He looked around at the still standing trees. His eyes drifted up to the sky, watching the clouds fly over head. He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes.

He didn't know how long he zoned out for, but by the time he looked back around, Lydia was yelling at him to come eat. Loki pushed himself up off the ground and plopped back down on the ground around the coals of what had been the fire. Syth set a plate of roasted pheasant in front of him. "Enjoy this. It's the last of our food." she said.

Loki wasn't surprised. The rest of the Avengers' packs had disappeared with them, so they didn't have all that extra food. Loki bit down into the pheasant leg. It actually reminded him of food from Asgard. Home.

After about five minutes, everybody's food was gone. Tony licked his fingers and laid back. He propped himself up on his elbows and looked around at everybody, smirking.

Loki ignored him and watched the sky. It was sunny, but he saw clouds gathering on the horizon. The weather sure did change fast here.

"Should I make the fire warmer? I could add some extra wood." Lydia said.

"Honey, you make the room warmer just by being in it." Tony said, trying desperately not to laugh at his own joke.

Lydia chewed her lower lip, not sure how to respond. Syth rolled her eyes. "Naw. We're good. We don't necessarily want the fire going when we leave, so might as well let it burn out." she said.

"When are we leaving?" Loki asked.

"I don't know about you, but I didn't get much sleep last night." she threw a glance at Tony. "So we should sleep today and travel tonight."

"You want us to travel in the dark?" Lydia asked.

"Well, then things like bandits and rouges can't see us as well." Syth said. "So we'd be safer."

"Yeah, but things like saber tooth cats and trolls will be able to see us better than we'd be able to see them."

Syth shrugged. "Win some lose some. Plus, I can tell you when they get close. I can see pretty well in the dark." she smiled a little bit.

Loki wondered why, but he didn't ask. "Another reason we can sleep now could be so any," Syth tossed another glance at Tony. "um, _side effects, _of last nights incident could wear off."

Tony raised an eyebrow at her. "I actually can hear you... ya know?"

Syth nodded. "I know."

There was an awkward moment of silence, and then "THAT BLONDE SHE'S A BOMB SHE'S AN ATOM BOMB, RIGGED UP AND READY TO DROP!" Tony burst into song.

Lydia turned bright red. Tony fell back onto his back, laughing loudly. Loki sighed. "I'm going to strangle him." he said.

Lydia frowned. "Please."

Syth rolled her eyes again. "Tony..."

"SHE'S A BOMBSHELL BLONDE, WIRED OFF TO DETONATE! IM JAMES BOND, LIVE TO DIE ANOTHER DAY..." he trailed off, being overtaken with giggles.

"Just put him to sleep before I strangle the life out of him." Loki said, face palming.

Lydia just shook her head. "Wake me when it's over."

"Hey, isn't that another song?" Tony asked.

He looked up at the sky for a minute, seeming overly thoughtful. "No. No more songs." Lydia said.

"Yeah, it is..." Tony said. "So wake me up when it's all over! When I'm wiser and I'm older! All this time I was findin' myself, and I-" He creased his eyebrows together. "I forgot the rest." he said sadly.

"How about you just forget what singing is in general." Lydia suggested.

"You should go into the business of an, encourager, or whatever they're called." Tony said, laughing at his own joke again.

"Thanks. I'll look into it."

"I stared up at the sun, thought of all of the people and places and things I've loved…" Tony sang again.

"Okay that's it." Syth said.

She picked up a blanket that happened to be laying next to her and smothered his face in it. He struggled for a second and pushed it back in her face. "Are you trying to kill me?" he cried.

Syth cocked her head and smiled. "What would give you that idea?"

A smirk played on his lips. "You can't kill me... I'm, uh, invincible. Right? Isn't that what they call me?" he looked around for agreement, but nobody knew what he was talking about. He sighed. "Oh come on. Haven't any of you seen the comic books? The, um, Invincible Iron Man, I think it is."

"You're a dork." Syth said.

Tony looked at her. "Have you always been this pretty?" his words were long and slurred together.

"Can I kill him now?" Loki asked.

"I literally, _just said_, you can't kill me." Tony said, sounding annoyed.

Syth dropped the blanket onto Tony's head and sat back on her heels, watching as he struggled to get it off his face. It took him longer than it should have, and he eventually fell onto the ground.

Loki got a little bit of justice watching him squirm around on the ground. He didn't know if it was a bad thing though. Did other people get the same feelings that he did? After all, he was some kind of monster. Did that affect his mind? He didn't know what was wrong with him. He felt wrong.

He looked back, watching as Tony finally managed to get the blanket off his head. Tony looked at it for a second before wrapping up in it. He brought his knees up to his chest and stared up at the sky. And again, Loki thought he could see him coming out of his stupor. But then, only a couple minutes later, his eyes clouded and he went right back to his drunk self.

Tony scooted across the ground over to where Syth was sitting. She was leaning up against a stump, watching the fire blaze in front of her. Tony sat next to her, and then laid his head in her lap. She creased her eyebrows and thought about shoving him away. Tony closed his eyes and didn't move.

"If that'll shut him up, leave him there." Lydia said.

Syth sighed. "But now I can't move."

"I guess you're just stuck there until he wakes up. Hopefully you don't have to go to the bathroom." Lydia laughed.

Syth frowned. "Thanks for reminding me."

"Well, I'm going to sleep too. Night. Or, I guess morning. 'Cause it's morning."

"I get it Lydia."

"Okay. Goodnight. I mean morning!" Lydia cried.

Loki pushed himself up against a tree too and closed his eyes. Eventually, he dozed off. Then, what seemed like a couple seconds later, Lydia was shaking him to wake up. "Get up sleeping beauty. It's time to go." she said.

Loki looked up at her right as she was about to kick him. She smiled and walked away awkwardly. Tony and Syth were up too. Syth was putting out the fire and Tony was sitting on the stump, bags under his eyes and the blanket still wrapped around his shoulders.

Loki stood up and was about to gather up his stuff when he realized all the food was gone. So instead, he picked up his staff that Thor had some how gotten a hold up during the journey. Lydia gave him some rope and he tied it to his back.

It was completely dark, and the clouds were flooding the sky again. Loki thought he heard thunder in the distance and shivered. Thunder wasn't exactly his friend.

"Everybody ready?" Syth asked, standing in the coals of what had been the fire.

"Let's go." Lydia said, who had looked like she had had the best night's sleep ever.

Loki walked over to her and looked right at her. But she was looking the other way.

"Are you coming?" Syth called over to Tony.

He grunted in response. Then, slowly, he stood up and made his way over to them. He looked sickly.

"Hangover?" Loki asked.

"No. I feel fine. Thanks for noticing." Tony said, sarcasm dripping off his words.

"Come on guys. We have a lot of ground to cover. Tony lose the blanket. It's not a good look for you." Syth said.

"No. It's warm."

She rolled her eyes, but let him keep it.

They set out, getting right back onto the cobblestone pathway that they had been following before. They hugged the side closest to the woods, in case they needed to disappear. Lydia and Syth were wide awake and alert. Loki wanted to curl up and go back to sleep. Tony looked like he wanted to kill something. He didn't even bother to fly.

Every once in a while, they would have stop because Syth thought she heard something, or Lydia saw a shadow in the distance. But it was never anything. Maybe they were too alert.

And then it all sort of happened at once. There was a twig snap. The sound of labored breath. A grunt. A quick intake of breath. The sound of a sword being taken from its scabbard. Loki heard them all.

"Lydia." he said quietly.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"We're surrounded."

She looked around. "No we're not."

"Yes. Yes we are."

And then, an instant later, ten bandits rushed out from the brush. And it all sort of went from there.

Tony lost his blanket and darted into the air, firing randomly, only barely missing Loki a couple times. Syth yanked out her swords, one like the sun and the other like the night, and started hacking at people. Lydia dropped the ground and rolled out of the way. She came up behind one of the bandits and drove her sword through them.

And Loki. He was glad he had his staff. He had barely even realized Thor had taken it. Good thing it hadn't disappeared with the rest of the Avengers. And then he started attacking.

And then, before he realized it, all the bandits were laying on the ground, mere corpses. Power rushed through Loki's veins. He felt like he could take on the world. He glanced at his hands and almost dropped his staff. They were bright blue.

He glanced at the ground, hoping nobody had noticed. He was afraid of what they might say. Would they think he was a monster and leave him here alone? Maybe he did deserve to be left alone.

He focused and brought his hands back to normal color again. "Stupid bandits." Syth muttered, putting her swords away.

"One of them burnt my bow." Lydia said.

"What? That was one of my better bows!" Syth cried.

"Sorry. You should know better than to give me nice things."

"You have that sword."

"That's different. I got that myself." Lydia said.

"That doesn't even... Okay. Well, just come on." Syth started walking again.

Tony landed on the ground with a loud thunk. His face was set into a hard line, like destroying bandits hadn't helped his mood at all. He stomped over to his blanket, picked it up, and wrapped back up in it.

"It's like I'm leading a bunch of sissys." Syth muttered, seeing Tony huddling with his blanket.

"Loki looks fine." Lydia said.

"Right. I forgot. One sissy." Syth said.

"Shut up." Tony mumbled.

Then, Loki felt the first drops of rain. He spread his arms and looked towards the heavens. "Great." Lydia mumbled, as thunder rolled overhead.

"Don't worry. I got this." Syth said.

She looked up and let out a yell. It was the same words she had yelled when she cleared away the blizzard. "Wait for it..." she said, holding up a finger.

But the rain just kept getting heavier. "Waiting..." Tony snapped.

She frowned. "Let me try again." she threw her head back and yelled again.

But still, the storm continued. "Your yell thing isn't working. Let's just go." Loki said.

Syth gritted her teeth. "By Sithis, it should be working!" she cried.

"Sometimes even the Dragonborn can't stop the weather." Lydia teased.

"It's not funny!"

"I never said it was; but it's not a big deal. We'll figure it out later. Now come on."

Syth muttered something under her breath and followed Lydia through the rain. It had already soaked Loki to the skin. His clothes were sticking to him and his hair was plastered to his neck. His shoes sloshed whenever he stepped on the wet ground.

Loki kept alert, looking around in the woods, waiting for something else to attack them. In this land, undoubtedly something would. And after an hour, somehow he had ended up walking right next to Lydia.

For an eerie second, lightning lit up the world. Then, a couple seconds later, thunder clapped loudly overhead. Loki drew in a deep breath of the cold air.

"I swear, next person I see, I'll murder them." Syth said.

"Not if I get to them first." Tony said.

Lydia rolled her eyes. "Calm down guys."

"You calm down." Syth said, sounding like a little kid.

"Is that a city?" Loki asked, pointing ahead.

Lydia stopped and peered down the road. "Yeah! It's a little town... I bet it has an inn."

"Oh goodie. Lots of people for me to have to restrain myself and not murder." Syth said dryly.

"But it's a _warm and dry place to sleep_." Lydia said.

"Right then. Carry on."

Lydia suddenly ran ahead of them towards the city. Loki blinked. He had seen some of the mortal's Olympic Games before. He had seen the running part and thought it was pathetic. But this girl could have outrun the fastest runner there, and maybe even some of the people in Asgard.

Loki bit his lower lip, and then took off after her. The rain pelted his face and the air stung his arms. He pushed himself to go faster. Lydia was only a few yards in front of him.

At the last second he jumped and gently spun her around. She turned in a circle and almost fell. Loki caught her, a smile clear on his face. Lydia looked up at him, her cheeks stained bright red. Loki didn't know if it was because of her run or because of something else. He didn't care.

"Um... Thanks?" Lydia finally mumbled.

Loki realized he had a firm grip on her hands. He let go reluctantly, a little embarrassed. Lydia let out a small, tinkling laugh. Something warmed inside of him. She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and looked away, licking her lips. Loki looked at the ground awkwardly.

Finally, Tony and Syth caught up. Tony had ditched his blanket finally. Thunder sounded overhead again. "You guys have too much energy." Syth muttered.

Lydia looked up at Loki and smiled a little bit. He was caught off guard. He had expected her to be mad at him. Maybe she was and she was really good at acting. Loki didn't know. But either way, he returned the smile with a small one.

"Come on weirdoes. We're raiding this inn." Syth said.

She pushed past them and walked in. Loki shrugged and motioned for Lydia to go. He followed her in and looked around. There were only a couple people there. They didn't look particularly dangerous, so he ignored them.

There was a large fire pit in the middle, a set up of tables and benches stationed around it, and a counter at the other end of the room. There were doors that led to bedrooms lining the walls.

Syth sighed. "I just realized that I have to pay for four rooms. That's like, forty gold." she said.

"Sorry. If I could make there be less of me, I would." Loki said.

"Oh, ha ha. You're hilarious." she turned and stormed up to the counter. "I need four rooms." she said to the innkeeper.

Loki was shown to his room, but he wasn't tired yet. He had just woken up a few hours ago. He kicked his shoes off and went back out into the main room and sat down by the fire, trying to dry himself off. Lydia walked out of her room to and sat down across from him, putting her hands as close to the fire as she could without burning them. Loki took his hoodie off and laid it on one of the benches, trying to get it to dry.

Tony had disappeared into his room and was probably already asleep. Syth was eating a slice of bread and drinking something out of a large mug. Loki's stomach suddenly growled. "Do you want something?" Lydia asked.

Loki laughed. "What makes you ask?"

She shrugged. "Just a hunch. Come on. I'll get you something."

He stood up and followed her to the counter. "Do you want some cheese, or bread, or um..." she asked.

"We have sweet rolls too." the innkeeper suggested.

"Oh! He wants one of those. And get me one too."

The innkeeper smiled and started making them. "What?" Loki asked.

"Sweet rolls are the Divine's gift to mankind." she said dreamily. "I swear, they're so good I would kill for one."

Loki didn't know how to respond, so he just waited until the innkeeper handed him the sweet roll.

"I hope you don't like it." Lydia said.

"Why?"

"Because then I get to eat it."

Loki smirked before taking a bite of it. A rush of flavors filled his mouth. It was extremely sweet, but the cake part balanced out it. She was right; it was delicious. But nothing would ever top the Snickers bars.

Loki finished it pretty fast and sat back down by the fire. He didn't know how long he sat there. He knew that at one point Syth had went into her room, and another one of the other people had left the inn. The other seemed to be staying the night. And then at another point Tony came out a draped his shirt and hoodie over a rod that was hanging over the fire. Loki was pretty sure that it was for cooking, and not drying clothes, but he didn't say anything.

The innkeeper eventually went to sleep too. And then Lydia went to her room. And the only people up were Loki and the other person in the inn, sitting with his back facing him.

For some reason, Loki didn't want to go to bed with the guy still awake. He got a bad feeling from him. It was a sense that he was waiting for something. But he could have been wrong. It was probably just his imagination.

Finally, Loki convinced himself that it wasn't anything to worry about and he stood up. A split second later, he felt a knife at his throat. Loki froze, fear flooding his veins. And then it was gone.

A small smile formed on his lips. He let out a quiet chuckle. "I thought maybe you were someone to worry about." he said.

"You thought right."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9! Hope you enjoy it :) read and review! (Sorry it took so long. I'm blaming school.)**

Tony turned over in the hard bed, dragging the thin blanket across his body. His breath came in short puffs, and he still wasn't seeing straight from his hangover. He felt like his stomach was on the 'blender' setting. He closed his eyes and opened them again. He turned the other way and the blanket fell off of the bed.

He closed his eyes tight, but no matter how hard he tried, sleep wouldn't come. Something was wrong; he knew it. But what? He sat up suddenly, feeling like he was going to throw up. He was hungry, sick and worried all at once. He wanted some water.

He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. He took a single step and fell flat on his face. He let out a small moan and hauled himself up. Carefully, he made his way to the door and opened it. Immediately, a bad feeling exploded inside of him.

It could have been Tony's imagination, but there seemed to be more of a chill in the air than normal. He gingerly stepped into the main room, looking around. Nobody was in it except for the sleeping inn keeper.

And then, the faintest noise came from the room directly across from where he was standing. Stepping quietly, he walked over to it and saw something he would never forget.

He came just in time to watch the entire thing, paralyzed in fear. There was a woman holding a knife to Loki's throat. But all you could see of her were her eyes. Everything else was covered in black armor. Neither of them had noticed Tony yet, so he sank to the ground and watched.

Loki was smiling and chuckling quietly. It all happened so fast. One minute, Loki was breathing his last, and then, a second later, he was holding her by the throat. The knife finished clattering to the ground and Tony watched as the woman struggled. Loki gave a smile, his hands turning blue.

The woman let out a stiffled scream, her eyes as wide as saucers. And then, a blue crept into them, over taking her. Loki let go of her and she fell to the floor, gasping. And then, she collapsed.

Loki's smile vanished. His hands turned to a normal color again and he turned and saw Tony watching him. "What?" Loki asked, his heavy accent making him sound almost British.  
Tony stood back up. "Nothing." he said shortly. "What happened?"

Loki shrugged. "She tried to kill me."

"So you killed her."

"Don't tell me you've never killed before."

"That's different."

"How so? It's the same thing, just different, sometimes more drastic, circumstances." Loki said.

"It's not the same thing. They were going to kill thousands more." Tony snapped.

He still wasn't feeling great and Loki was ticking him off.

"So you would have killed me?"

"Would you have killed more?"

Loki paused, not sure how to respond. "There's your answer." Tony said, pushing past him.

Loki looked down and then back at him. Tony knelt over the body of the girl and pulled a note out of her pocket. He unfolded it and read:

_ Your target is Loki Laufeyson. Use any means at your disposal. Failure is not an option. If you come back and he's still walking Skyrim, I'll have to drop you from the service. _

"What's that?" Loki asked.

"Just a piece of paper." Tony said, folding it up and putting it in his pocket.

He stood up and he and Loki had a face off for a moment. They didn't say anything. They just stood there, sizing each other up. Tony immediateley regretted his descion of leaving his armor in his room. He started planning the quickest escape route, what he could use for a weapon, and any weaknesses Loki may have.

"Nice scar by the way." Tony said suddenly.

Loki smiled and fingered the long, bloody cut across his neck where the knife had been. "Thanks. I've been working on it for a while now." he said.

Tony cocked his head. "Did the great Loki Laufeyson just _joke_?"

"No. I never joke." he paused. "How did you know my last name?"

Tony mentally smacked himself. Then, he smiled. "I know things. By the way, she's great for you."

"What?"

"Lydia. She's got the hots for you."

"What? Are you crazy?"

"It's a possibility. Anyways, you'd have to be blind to not see it. She treats you like some sort of god or something." Tony said.

"I am a god." Loki said, like it was totally obvious.

"Not here you're not. Anyways, best advice," he walked past Loki and out into the main room. "is to not scalp her."

"Why would I- Wait, why are you giving me advice?"

"Because you need it."

"No, I don't. And you're in no posistion to be giving _me _advice." Loki said. Tony looked thoughtful for a second. Then he said, "Yes I am. I'm standing right here, you've got a girl ready to fall at your feet, and you've never had a girlfriend."

"What makes you think I've never had a girlfriend?"

Tony shrugged. "Just a hunch. Was I right?"

Loki looked away. Tony sat down at one of the benches. "Thought so."

"First of all, I don't have the _hots _for anybody. Second, I don't think Loki's going to scalp anybody. And third, both of you need advice. _Shut up_." Lydia said suddenly from the other side of the room.

Tony flinched and Loki rolled his eyes. "I told you."

"You don't understand girls very well, do you?" Tony asked.

"_Shut up_." Lydia snapped.

Tony smirked. Just then, Syth walked out of the other room. Her hair was messy and she had bags under her eyes. "We have to go." she said.

"What? Why?" Lydia asked.

"They're coming. We have to go. There's no way we can fight them all. Get your stuff. They'll be here in two minutes."

Nobody had any idea what she was talking about, but they didn't hesitate. Tony ran to his room and dug his armor out of the chest. He stuffed one of his boots on while clumsily putting on the other glove. Suddenly, his vision clouded over and his mind swam. He lost balance and fell to the floor. Stupid hangover. "Get up!" he heard Syth's voice like it was a thousand miles away.

He struggled to regain control and when he did Syth had dragged him out of the inn. The full moon was still shining down and lighting up the world. Tony got his balance back and pushed away from Syth, who pointed ahead to where Loki and Lydia were already waiting, waving for them to hurry.

Tony couldn't hear anything. He just ran. His mind was too busy to allow him the luxury of hearing what was going on around him. The only sound he heard was the sound of his own breathing and the heart beat inside him.

He heard himself let out a ragged breath as he tripped and kept going. He couldn't quite get himself to get into the air to fly. He ran as fast as his tired legs would carry him to where Loki and Lydia were standing and stopped when he got to them. He saw their lips moving, but he couldn't make out words.

Syth looked startled and scared to death. Vulnerable. Loki looked confused. And Lydia looked almost as worried as Syth. Tony stood there, his hearing slowly coming back to him. He tried to lip read what he could. He finally made out, "Don't let them touch you!"

Let what touch you? Then he turned and saw it. Or rather, them. Tony had been hoping for a good nights sleep. To wake up in the morning and feel like he had never had three (or was it four?) bottles of Nord Mead. And _not _run from whatever these things were. And if he did have to fight, he wanted to at least know what is was.

There was at least five of them, all clustered together. They were small and round and glowing. They were making these strange tinkling noises and had what looked like little sparkles falling off of them. They hovered about two feet off the ground were coming at them at a pretty fast pace.

Tony's hearing came back in a rush. He could hear the screams of people from somewhere nearby. He could hear Lydia's frightened footsteps as she backpeadaled. He could hear ice crackling around Loki's fingertips. He could hear Syth's panicked breathing.

"What are those things?" Loki demanded.

Silence. Just the tinkling of the creatures getting closer and closer. "Wisps." Lydia finally said, like that was supposed to make Tony cower in fear or something.

"What the heck are those?" Tony snapped.

Syth cast a glare at him. "Just fight them. Don't let them touch you. I'll explain later." she said.

And that was all the warning he got. An instant later, the wisps were on top of them, the tinkling louder than ever. Then they stopped and seemed to be looking at them. And suddenly, without any warning, the wisps rushed at them, leaving a trail of sparkles in their wake.

Tony fumbled around with his glove, barely dodging a wisp rushing his head. He heard Lydia screaming a battle cry that sounded vaguely like 'stuffed crust', but he could have heard wrong.

Another wisp came at him and he bent over backwards so far he could have won any limbo competition. He smacked his glove, trying to get it work. For some reason, it had decided that this was the perfect time to stop working right.

Suddenly, the flying kicked in. He shot into the air, aiming right for a tree. He landed on one of the branches, wobbling unsteadily. "Get your butt back down here!" Syth screamed at him.

He frowned, and then the armor shot him forward and then cut out. He looked at the ground as he started falling. It was one of those really long seconds where a million things go through your head. But only one thing came to Tony's mind: _"Well this sucks."_

And then the power kicked back in. He shot forward, practically knocking Lydia down. "Watch it!" she shouted.

Tony stuck his tongue out and narrowly avoided crashing into a tree. Was it just him, or did he like to crash into trees?

Finally, he got it under control and flew back to where the wisps were. There were only two left now. He fired a bolt at one and it disintergrated on the spot. He raised his eyebrows. That had worked better than he thought it would.

He landed in the middle of the fighting with the last one. Syth jumped into the air, swords abover her head. The wisp moved at the last second and she hit the ground hard and rolled towards it again.

Tony glanced back and saw Lydia dipping a point of a kitchen knife into a purpleish mixture. Loki was standing close to her, watching the wisp closely. "Syth!" Lydia cried, dropping the emtpy bottle to the ground.

Syth glanced back, barely dodging a hit from the wisp. She noticed the knife and gave a thumbs up. Lydia smiled and threw the knife as hard as she could. Tony watched as it sailed through the air, end over end, and then stick firmly in the wisp.

Syth nodded at Lydia, a smile spreading across her face. "I would move if I were y-" Lydia started saying, but was cut off by a loud explosion.

Syth screamed and was thrown backwards. Tony sidestepped and caught her. There was an awkward moment of struggling as the ring died out from everybody's ears. Syth pushed herself up and dusted herself off. "You have _got _to stop falling for me." Tony said, barely containing the smirk on his face.

"I didn't fall _for _you." Syth snapped. "I fell _on _you. Because you were in the way." she put her swords in their scabbards and walked away to examine the dead wisp.

Tony shook his head and followed her over to it. She stood up, dusting sparkly dust off her hands. "What?" she snapped.

"You said you'd tell me what these things were." he said.

"Right." she took a deep breath and started walking back to the group. "Wisps are dangerous creatures. Most people don't know that."

"I thought it was a fairy at first."

She rolled her eyes. "Fairies don't exist."

"Says a girl from a world of trolls, wisps, dragons, and um... what's another one?" he asked.

Syth ignored him. "Like I was saying. A lot of people don't think wisps are as deadly as they actually are. If they touch you, you literally have five minutes to live."

Tony frowned. "Well that's great. But what are they?"

"They're wisps."

"Thanks, Sherlock. But are they animals? Are they plants? Are they living? Do they think?"

She shrugged. "Don't know. Nobody can really study wisps without dying. I mean, you can study them after they're dead, but then they kind of turn to a pile of dust."

"It's pixie dust."

"What?"

"Nothing."

She shook her head and walked ahead of him. Tony watched her walk away, and then realized he was smiling. He mentally slapped himself for the second time in the past half hour. He was going to have a mentally bruised face if he kept going like this.

Syth took the front of the group and lead them down the road, away from the inn. For some reason, Tony had expected them to stay there after. But Syth seemed to have other ideas.

It was late at night. Tony's legs ached and felt like they were going to fall off. But he didn't open his mouth once. Loki was silent too. In fact, it was dead silent. Nobody had talked for at least two hours straight. He had at least expected Lydia to make some comment about needing to stop. But she didn't.

Tony chewed his lower lip, feeling like something was going to happen. But nothing ever did. They just trudged down the road, not going too fast or too slow. Tony felt like something was missing. He glanced over his shoulder.

Then it hit him, practically knocking the wind out of him. His breath came in quick ragged gasps. His eyes widened. _"No." _he thought to himself. _"Not again." _

He remembered it now. For a while there, with the mead still wearing off and the lady who tried to kill Loki, and then the wisps, he had forgotten what had happened. He remebered that everybody, all the rest of the Avengers, were gone. And Tony didn't know where. He hated not knowing.

He tried to hide his sudden panic attack. He had had enough of sudden anxiety recently. He wanted to be done with it. He closed his eyes, taking deep breaths. But still, it welled up inside him. He shook his head violently.

He didn't know why he was freaking out. None of the Avengers really understood him... They didn't seem to like him. Except Bruce. _"Oh gosh." _They had taken Bruce.

Tony had about three friends in the world. Everybody always said that they were his friends, because everybody wants to be friends with a billionare. But they weren't. His, 'friends', didn't see the real side of him. Only a few people did. Rhodey, Bruce, and Pepper. But Pepper was gone. He had shown her his true self, and she hadn't accepted it. So she left him.

So two friends. Possibly one if Tony didn't find Bruce soon enough. Or maybe he could have already been... He shook his head again. He refused to think about it.

Loki fell back to where he was walking. He stared at him. "Are you okay?"

Tony nodded shortly, not taking his eyes off the road. "Yep." he said, inhaling quickly.

"Are you sure? You look... sick."

"I'm fine. Now beat it."

"Do you still have a hang over?" Loki asked.

"Gosh, you're worse than Harley." Tony mumbled. "No. I don't know. I'm fine."

"Is it something I did? Is it me?"

"No, but it's about to be."

Panic welled up inside of Tony again. He had just managed to surpress it, but now it was ready to bubble over again.

Loki bit his lower lip. "Was it the wisps? They're not aliens you know... They're not that bad."

A million thoughts suddenly raced through Tony's head. He froze. Then he started taking in deep breaths. "W-what..." he trailed off.

He ran away from Loki, down the road. Loki stood there, watching him go. Tony leaned his head against a tree, taking deep breaths, panic welling up inside him. He closed his eyes tight and put his hood on. He sank down, his back to the tree now. He couldn't wait to pick out the splinters later.

Lydia came jogging over to him. "You okay?" she asked.

Tony nodded. "Yeah." he said quickly.

He was experiencing deja vu now. Great. That was all he needed. A mess up in the Matrix.

"Want some help?" Lydia asked, holding out her hand.

Tony thought about saying something manly, like, 'I'm good.' but decided a hand would be nice. He put his hand into hers and she hauled him up easily.

She led him back to where Syth and Loki were standing, looking mildly worried. "When did you get so talkative?" Tony asked Loki.

He shrugged. "Since I tried to get an answer out of you."

Tony smirked. "Yeah, good luck with that."

Loki gave a light laugh. "Yes. Thank you."

Tony shook his head, still waiting for the anxiety to die down. "Come on guys. We still have a lot of groud to cover." Syth said.

"Until when?" Lydia asked.

"Until you can't walk anymore." Syth replied.

Lydia immediately fell down to the ground. Then, in an over dramatic voice, "Syth! Syth help me! I need to stop! I am not capable of walking anymore! I fear my legs shall break!"

Syth rolled her eyes. "Get up you milk drinker."

"Milk sounds delicious, thank you."

Syth laughed, turned and kept walking, not glancing back to see if anybody was following. But they were.

They walked and walked. Tony had gotten bored and started counting the minutes, but by the time he reached one hundred and twenty-six, he was beyond bored. He had stopped a long time ago, and now had no idea what time it was. But it was getting brighter. Even through the clouds he could still see the beginnings of a sunrise.

Lydia had only asked to stop seven times since Tony had stopped counting. So that either meant that she was wide awake and ready to run the rest of the way, or she was too tired to speak. And looking at her face didn't help him tell which it was.

Syth stayed up front the entire time. She never looked back. She never talked. She never even acknowlodged the fact that anybody was traveling with her. Tony walked a little faster than the rest and came up on the side of her.

"Got a question?" she asked. "Please tell me we're done with fairies."

"No. I wanted to know if they had miniature pinatas." he said.

"What?"

"I'm kidding. Do you have any idea what happened to everybody else?"

She shook her head. "Well, I know a dragon took them. But I don't know where, or even what dragon."

"No ideas at all?"

"Well..." she kicked the ground. "There is one place they may have gone."

"Where?" he asked.

"They could have gone to Savangarde."

"Where's that?"

She sighed. "I forget you people have no idea what anything is. Savangarde is where honored Nords go when they die."

Tony swallowed down another wave of panic. A thousand questions drowned his mind. But he said the first one that came to his mind. "Where do the dishonored Nords go?"

She laughed bitterly. "Well, we don't hear stories about that place. I guess they don't go anywhere."

"Well that's harsh."

She nodded. "Skyrim is a harsh place."

And then, Syth seemed to close up. She pursed her lips, stood a little straighter, and only stared ahead. She never once looked back at Tony. He wondered what was wrong. Did he say something?

They walked in silence again. It was almost unbearable. Tony was used to loud parties and constant talking around him. People always trying to get to him or touch his arm or tell him something. But here, it was emtpy for miles. And those who did live here had no idea who he was. He didn't know if he liked it.

After a while, Lydia started talking again. "Well this is boring."

Syth nodded, seeming to come out of her shell to see the world. "Yeah, it is." she agreed.

"I thought Skyrim was never boring." Loki said.

"Sometimes it is. Like on story nights when the old people retell stories that you've heard a thousand times." Lydia said, laughing.

Tony was surprised that he hadn't noticed before, but Lydia's and Loki's voices were similar. They both placed heavy accents on certain words, and then just rolled over others. It was adorable.

"Oh gosh, that's the worst." Syth said.

"What stories do they tell?" Tony asked.

"Mostly ones about the Dragon Wars. I think I've heard every story about that time that exists." Lydia said.

"Sounds fun." Loki said.

"It's not."

"The Dragon Wars?" Tony asked.

Syth nodded. "Yeah. There was another time when dragons were in Skryim. The Nords had to learn a new shout to even stand a chance. And all it did was put off the dragons for a while."

"Put them off until now." Lydia said sourly.

"That's awfully nice of them." Tony joked.

Syth nodded. "It was."

"What's a shout.?" Loki asked.

"It's like a yell." Lydia supplied helpfully.

Loki rolled his eyes. "A shout is how the dragons speak. If you ever see dragons fighting, they're actually yelling at each other. Their voice has power in it. Depending on what words you shout, different things can happen." Syth said.

"Like what you do." Tony said.

She nodded. "Yeah. There's only a few people in the world who can do it. And most need years of training to master one shout. The Dragonborn can learn it in a matter of seconds though."

"Lucky you."

She laughed. "Oh yeah. Super lucky. That should just be my name."

They walked in silence for a few minutes. Then, "I'm still bored." Lydia said.

"Me too." Syth replied.

More silence.

"Well this is awkward." Lydia said.

Loki chuckled.

"Let's play a game." Syth suggested.

"Like what?" Lydia asked.

"How about... I spy."

"That's a stupid game."

"Can you think of anything better? Not hopscotch."

Lydia frowned. "Fine. I'm going first." she looked around. "I spy... something gray."

Syth answered almost an instant later. "It's the pathway, isn't it?"

Lydia frowned. "Fine. You go."

Another pause. "I spy something... brown."

Ten seconds later... "Which tree is it?" Tony asked.

Syth made a weird growling noise. "Your turn."

"Uh, I spy something... glowing."

"Her sword." Loki said a split second later. "My turn. I spy something orange."

"You don't only have to do colors you know..." Lydia said.

"Well... it's hot too."

"The sun?" Syth asked.

"This is more boring than before." Lydia complained.

"I spy-"

Suddenly, Syth was knocked to the ground. There was a moment of confusion as Syth pushed somebody off of her. Loki shot forward and punched the person straight in the chin. Syth got up as the person blacked out and fell back to the ground. "I'm not bored anymore." Lydia said, her eyes wide.

Tony walked up to the person laying on the ground. Loki was kneeling by him. "I think it was just a bandit." Syth said.

"Again? This is getting old." Tony said.

Then, the bandit started to twitch voilently and move its legs. Syth sucked in a breath. "There's a necromancer here." she said.

"A what?"

"Oh my gosh. You guys no _nothing._ A necromancer. They can bring people back from the dead to fight for them." she said like it was totally obvious.

"Right. Where is it?"

"Behind you." Loki said helpfully.

Tony spun around and sent a punch flying through the air. It connected with somebody's jaw and he fell to the ground. Tony shook his hand. "Owwwww." he said, gritting his teeth.

Lydia gave a small laugh. "I like this." she turned to Syth. "We should get a couple guys to follow us _everywhere _and do _all _our fighting for us."

Syth laughed. Loki punched the bandit in the nose again and it fell back to the ground. Neither of them moved. "Get up so I can punch you again." Loki said.

"Come on guys. Let's go before they wake up." Syth said.

They ran away from the two unconscious people and down the road.

After a couple hours, everybody was dragging their feet. Nobody spoke. Lydia had said she wanted to stop an hour and half ago. Syth looked up and pointed to a small hut. It looked abandoned. "We'll stay here. Come on guys."

Lydia suddenly seemed to gain a bunch of energy again. She ran as fast as she could towards the hut and Loki followed her.

Tony started trudging forward to the hut when he felt someone's hand on his arm. He turned. "Hang on a sec." Syth said.

He turned. "Yeah?"

"Um... I kinda want to tell you something."

Tony noticed she was bright red and rocking back and forth on her heels. Her hands were fiddling nervously with the hilts of one of her knives. She kept brushing a strand of hair back behind her ear. Tony smirked. "What is it?" he asked.

"Well... I, uh... Nord's are supposed to be very... uh, _straightforward, _with their feelings." she said, stuttering.

"Please, continue." Tony said, smothering a laugh.

"I, uh, have never been very good at that... But, I need to tell you this." she looked up at him.

Her eyes were wider than normal, and something was sparkling inside of them. Tony just kept smiling. "Okay, spit it out."

"I um..." she took a deep breath. "Well, I really-"

She was cut off by Lydia sticking her head out of the door of the hut. Tony realized it was missing a roof and the door had been torn off. "Hey Syth... You might wanna come in here." she said.

Syth frowned. "That was cliche." Tony said.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing."

Tony followed her inside the hut. "What's wrong?" Syth asked.

"Somebody's already here." Lydia replied.

"Get rid of them then."

But Lydia just pointed at the bed. Tony's heart leapt into his throat.

She had cuts on her face and was wearing dark armor that looked like it had been scavenged from many different places. A collection of knives were stuck into her armor, a lot like Syth's. She looked like any normal warrior or bandit you might find in Skryim, at least from what Tony had seen. But what was so different, was that she had a sleek, black gun hidden under the pillow. Part of it was sticking out, just showing the barrel. Her hands were on it, ready to fire at whoever woke her up.

Tony drew in a quick breath. "Natasha?"


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey guys! I'm sorry it took so long for me to post this, but I have serious writers block. Anyways, I didn't really proofread this very much, but I did rewrite it like twice... So I'm sorry for any typos! Anyways, if you guys could read this and then leave me a review on either where you think it's going to go or what's going to happen, or how you guys beat writers block, that would be awesome. Thanks guys! Hope you enjoy anyways :)**

No sooner than the words had left Tony's mouth than Natasha was up, gun aimed at his chest. She looked scared and uncertain. "Get away!" she cried.

Tony opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off. "I swear, if you don't leave, I'll shoot you. Get out of here!" she shouted.

"Natasha... It's me."

She licked her lips, looking worried. "Who?"

"Tony. Invincible. Iron Man. Stark. Um..." he thought for a second.

"Man of Iron." Loki supplied, hearing it enough times from his brother.

"Right. It's fine. You know me." Tony said.

She hesitantly held her gun. "How do I know it's you?"

Syth fingered the hilt of one of her knives and Lydia rested her hand on her sword. Tony sighed. "Do I really look that different? I guess I could use a shower."

Natasha shook her head. "If you don't give me a reason I'll shoot."

Syth looked worriedly back and forth between Tony and Natasha. "Um..." Tony looked around. Then he nodded, like it was obvious. "Right. A reason you can know it's me."

He pulled down the hoodie just far enough over his chest to reveal his arc reactor. There was a moment of silence, and then Natasha dropped her gun and ran over to him. "Oh my gosh, I thought I was alone here." she said.

She hugged him, which surprised everybody. She didn't normally just give out hugs. Loki saw Syth stiffen.

After a second, Natasha seemed to snap back to her senses, realizing that she was hugging somebody. She pulled away and sighed. She turned and picked up her gun, putting it in a holster on her hip.

"What happened to you?" Lydia asked.

Natasha sighed. "The last thing I remember is waking up in a bandit camp. They all attacked me and I barely managed to get away. I couldn't remember how I got there. I don't even remember how I got in this land in the first place."

"None of us know." Loki said.

"Do you remember anything before we got here?" Tony asked.

She nodded. "I remember everything. I just couldn't quite recognize you. You do need a shower. Plus I don't know if maybe there's someone here that looks like you a little."

"In a hoodie."

"Oh shut up. I have an excuse. I've had a rough couple days."

"What happened after that?" Lydia asked.

"Well, I ran away from those bandits as fast as I could. I kind of just wandered farther and farther, occasionally fighting bandits and thieves I met and scavenged for their armor. I learned pretty fast that my cat suit wasn't going to cut it here." she gave a half hearted smile. "So, all I've been doing is trying to stay alive."

"That can be hard work." Loki said understandingly.

She looked at him, surprised. She had expected him to try and attack her, not say he understands and try to be like a friend.

"I'm sorry Nat." Tony said. "But you're with us now."

She smiled again. "Yeah. And maybe this time I won't disappear or whatever happened."

"No, that was pretty much it."

"Well, I know you were just sleeping, but we came here to rest. So can you maybe take the first watch? This place is crawling with bandits and probably a few Forsworn." Syth said.

Natasha nodded. "Sure."

"What are Forsworn?" Loki asked.

"They're sort of like bandits, but tougher. They fight for a purpose. They think Skyrim belongs to them. Why? I'm not sure. But they do, and so they try to kill or enslave everybody else." Syth said.

"That sounds great." Tony said.

Syth nodded. "It is. Okay, so Natasha has first watch, I'll take the second, and then Lydia, Tony, and Loki."

"So technically, I'm just going to get up really early." Loki said.

"Technically. Now cozy up. We leave early tomorrow."

Loki found a softer spot on the floor, because Tony had claimed the bed. Syth had fought him for it, but then decided it wasn't worth her energy, and found another spot on the floor.

Loki curled up, bringing his knees to his chest. He didn't think he would ever fall asleep, but he actually did fairly quickly after he laid down. He woke up to the sound of Lydia moaning at one point. He watched her for just a second to make sure she was okay. And then, when he caught himself doing that, he rolled his eyes at himself and closed his eyes again.

What felt like an instant later, Tony was shaking him. "Get up. I want to sleep." he said.

"Whaa..." Loki trailed off.

"Go take the watch so I can sleep again."

Loki sighed loudly and pushed past him, sleepily sitting in the doorway of the crumbled house. Tony walked back to his bed and curled back up. Loki stared out into the darkness for a while, listening to the crickets around him. The sounds of breathing behind him were so soothing, like they were taunting him to go back to sleep.

What was going to happen? Had anything attacked yet? Who in their right mind was awake now? Loki decided that nothing was going to happen and leaned his head against what was left of the door frame. He closed his eyes. And then, right before he woke up, he remembered something about Lydia. He didn't know exactly what triggered it, but an image of her flashed into his mind. He opened his eyes suddenly and stared ahead. He would stay awake and keep watch. He wouldn't sleep. Not when there was such a valuable treasure in the room behind him. And he didn't even roll his eyes at himself.

"Are we almost there yet?" Lydia asked for the eigth time.

"We're five minutes closer from when you asked last time." Syth said, annoyed.

"Only five minutes? I feel like it's been an hour."

"So do I. You realize that we're traveling all the way across _Skyrim,_ right?"

"Yeah... How close are we?"

"We're a little over half way." Syth said, consulting her map.

"That's _it_?" Lydia cried.

"If you don't shut up I'm going to hurt you."

"Make me."

"Someone has low blood sugar." Tony said.

Both of the girls instantly turned and glared at him. Loki stifled a laugh. Natasha glanced at him. "Are they always like this?"

"Pretty much."

"When are we going to stop?" Lydia asked.

"When you see a good spot to sleep for the night." Syth said.

Lydia immediately started searching the forest around her. Tony launched into the air, scanning the ground. Loki peered into the trees, hoping to see a nice place to settle for the night. They walked for five more minutes before Natasha spotted a clearing in the woods. "There's an awful lot of these convienent clearings around here." Tony said when he landed.

Syth chuckled. "Okay, we need firewood and food. Let's split into teams to get this done quicker."

Tony suddenly appeared by her side. "I'll go with you." he said, a smirk appearing on his face.

She cast a glance at him, edging away awkwardly. "I'll go with Loki." Lydia said a little too quickly.

Loki felt his face heat up. "We'll take Natasha to get food." Syth said.

Loki saw a little sparkle die out almost immediately in Tony's eyes. Loki surpressed a laugh as Natasha walked over to stand by Syth. "Meet you back here in half an hour." Syth said.

Loki turned and followed Lydia into the forest. They were silent for a while as the sun set, painting the sky pinks and oranges. Loki desperatly wanted to talk to her, so he tried to start a conversation. "So, um, do you kill things often?"

Lydia laughed. "What?"

He frowned. "I'm not entirely sure how to talk to girls."

"You just talk to them like normal human beings." she said like it was obvious.

"Are you sure? Because everybody always tells me that there are special rules when you talk to a girl." he told her.

"Well then those people don't know what they're talking about." she paused. "Well, don't like, call them fat or something. But you know... You shouldn't call even a guy that."

Loki chuckled slightly. "I won't ever call you fat then."

She creased her eyebrows. "Um, thanks?"

"Is that not what you meant?"

"No... It was I guess." she gave a light laugh. "Are you looking for firewood?"

He laughed nervously. "Of course. Are you not?"

"No, I am."

There was another awkward silence. The both bent for the same branch. Lydia shoved it in his face and then picked up another one. After five minutes, they had found enough firewood. They brought it back to the little clearing and waited for the rest to show up.

They sat awkwardly around the fire that Lydia had started. "So..." Lydia started, looking around desperatley for something to talk about.

More silence.

Then they both laughed at the same time, then awkwardly faded out when they realized that they were laughing at nothing. "So, what do you do for fun?" Lydia asked suddenly.

Loki looked up, thinking about saying that he tried to take over worlds for fun, but that wasn't exactly _fun. _And it wasn't like he did it often. "Well, I like to read...?" he tried.

Lydia's face lit up. "Really? Oh my gosh, me too! Have you read, 'A Cabin in the Woods'?"

"Um... No. Not that I know of."

"Have you read 'The Beggar Thief'?"

"No..."

"Have you at least read 'A Dream of Savangarde?'"

He shook his head. "Nope."

"What _have _you read?"

"Well... Not much. There's not many books where I live." he said.

She turned and dug a book out of her pack. She came over and sat by Loki and opened it. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and a warm feeling rushed through him. "This book is so good. This is the Beggar Thief one." she said.

She flipped to the beginning and started reading to him. The sky grew darker and darker, and they had to get closer and closer to the fire so Lydia could see. She read an entire chapter to him, and by the time she had said the words 'Chapter 2', Loki was just as lost in her voice as he was in the story.

Lydia suddenly turned to him. "Do you want me to stop?" she asked.

Loki looked surprised. "What? No! Keep reading. It's a good story." he smiled at her.

She read another few pages before he noticed her hand on top of his. He didn't move it though. Eventually, Chapter 3 came. Even close to the fire, it was pretty much to dark to see little words.

She noticed her hand on top of Loki's and pulled away quickly. "Oh gosh. I'm sorry. That was awkward." she laughed nervously and closed the book.

Loki shrugged and stared into the flames. "It was fine."

"What?" she asked.

He turned to look at her. "It was fine."

For a second, they just stared at each other. And then, like some cliche scene in a movie, they started leaning in, towards each other. They closed their eyes and Loki could practically feel how close Lydia was.

Suddnely, Syth appeared out of the woods, holding two dead rabbits and a squirrel. She threw one at Lydia's head. "Hey there Love Bird. Glad you didn't miss us. Now make dinner." she said.

Lydia jumped. "What? Oh, um... Right."

Tony walked out of the forest, Natasha close on his tail. "You didn't even try to come look for us? We were gone an hour over what I said we would be!" Syth said.

"Oh... Sorry. I was reading." Lydia said.

"I can see that."

"Thanks for all the help with that ice wraith by the way." Tony said sarcastically.

"Anytime." Loki said.

Lydia ignored them and started cooking the rabbits. "I can't believe you killed a squirrel. Those things are adorable." she said sadly.

"Squirrels are more delicious than they are cute." Syth said flatly.

"You're heartless, you know that?"

"Yes. Yes I do."

Lydia shook her head and continued to cook. "Want some help?" Loki asked.

"No thanks. I'm good."

He frowned, thinking about shoving her out of the way and cooking, but he didn't. Instead, he sat down and stared at the trees. Tony came and sat by him. "So.. You and Lydia?" he asked.

"What?" Loki looked up suddenly.

Tony chuckled. "I've been in enough situations like that to know what was going on. You guys definitely have a thing for each other."

Loki furrowed his brow. "I don't have a, _thing, _for anybody."

"Then why were you going to kiss her, huh?"

Loki thought for a second. He opened his mouth to say something, but no words came. He couldn't think of an excuse.

Tony laughed. Suddenly, a hot, cooked rabbit was thrown at his face. "Ow!" he cried.

Lydia smirked. "I'm right here you know. You can stop talking about me." she said, holding another rabbit on a stick. "I have more ammo too."

Tony put his hands up in a surrender gesture, but kept laughing. "Go ahead and eat together you two." he said.

Lydia sighed loudly and walked over to the other side of the fire to eat. Syth laughed and nudged her in the side. Lydia shoved her off the rock she was sitting on. Natasha started laughing too and Tony tried to help Syth up. She smacked his hand away and sat back down on her rock, waving her hand at Tony to move.

Loki felt so distant from it all. He wasn't laughing. He was sitting alone, away from them. He thought about getting up to go sit over there, but instead he stayed where he was. The only person he would feel comfortable sitting next to would be Lydia, and he didn't want to make things more awkward for her. So he stayed where he was at.

And then, he realized it: he was turning soft. He had realized that before, but this time, he really noticed it. He really was losing his touch. The Loki he used to be only a few days ago wouldn't have fallen for any girl he found. He brought his knees up to his chest. He didn't need a girl. He didn't need anybody.

He edged over to the fire and began eating, not taking his eyes off the rabbit haunch he was chewing on. "Come on over here, Loki." Lydia said. "We're going to tell scary stories."

"I'm going to give you nightmares for a week." Tony said smugly.

Syth laughed. "Yeah right. My stories will tuck yours into bed and set fire to the _rain_."

"Oh please no." Natasha cried suddenly, covering her ears.

"That doesn't even make sense Syth." Tony said, raising an eyebrow.

She thought about it. "Yeah well... Whatever."

Lydia looked hopefully up at Loki. He wanted to say yes. He wanted to go over to the little circle and listen in on all the stories, but he remembered what he had just told himself about being too soft. He shook his head firmly. "No. I'm going to bed." he turned and stalked off.

Lydia's face fell. "He's fine. He's just worried he'll have nightmares." Tony said.

Loki gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. Sometimes (most times), he almost wished he had ended Tony when he had the chance. He remembered the bitter sweet moment when he held the arc reactor. It would have been so easy. And the only reason he wasn't gone now was because of Lydia. He pursed his lips and walked to the edge of the clearing and sat down.

He leaned against a tree and pulled his knees to his chest. He wanted to be done. He wished he was back on Asgard, away from everybody. Sure, he was in a cell, but at least he was alone with his thoughts.

Natasha laughed from over by the fire, the flames making her red hair seem brighter than ever. "That's not scary!" she cried.

"No wait, it gets better!" Tony said quickly.

And then the voices died down a little bit. He noticed Lydia huddled together, her eyes wide, her unwavering attention focused on Tony. Loki shut his eyes.

"Was that supposed to be scary?" Syth asked.

"That was a fail." Lydia said dryly.

"I'm not done yet!" Tony practically shouted.

"Dude. You said 'the end'. You're done. My turn!" Syth said teasingly.

"Fine. Next one will be better."

"Now, this is a true story..." Syth's voice faded into the background noise of crickets and fire crackling.

Loki wanted to hurt something. He didn't care how much everybody else would hate him. He didn't care about them trying to kill him. He didn't care about his stupid brother. He didn't care about this stupid land. He didn't care about Lydia. He was done. Done with it all.

A cold feeling ran through him. It felt like ice running through his veins. He looked at his hands and saw a blue color starting to run through them. _"Oh no." _he thought, trying to get rid of it.

He thought he had in under control too. He clenched his fists, wishing he could stay normal for at least a day. Then he caught himself becoming soft again. _"No." _he told himself. _"I will not become some pathetic soft creature. I will stay strong." _He closed his eyes tight, willing himself to sleep. It would all be behind him in the morning.

He woke up in the middle of the night to a shout. At first, he thought it was his imagination. And then he heard a strangled cry. He was up on his feet an instant later. He saw two thugs holding Syth by the arms, dragging her into the forest. They had gagged her and were in the process of tying her hands and feet. She was putting up a good struggle though.

Loki did the first thing that came to his mind. It may have not been the best idea, especially considering what happened when he did it, but he was closer than Loki was after all. "Tony!" Loki shouted at the top of his lungs.

Tony jerked awake, jumping to his feet immediately. Loki pointed at Syth, who's hands were tied now, her eyes wide and her feet still kicking desperately. "Hold still you little-" Loki mentally blocked out the word that was not worthy to be printed on paper.

Tony's eyes grew wide. For a second, time seemed to freeze at that point. Lydia screamed. Syth kicked and struggled, her eyes full of fear. Loki crouched down, ready to defend himself. Natasha pulled out her gun. And then, a look of pure horror flashed across Tony's face. And then, it was quickly replaced by a wave of anger.

Loki had never seen that kind of anger before. And he had seen plenty of anger in his life time. He had seen crazy anger that didn't have a purpose. He had seen the anger of a mad man. He had seen anger to get revenge (or rather expeirenced it). He had seen the anger of what someone does when they lose someone or something dear to them. But this... This was different.

A sort of uncontrolled, righteous, desperate anger, that was more of a drive than an emotion. It flushed his face a deep red and he actually started shaking a little bit. It pushed him forward. He yelled something nobody could understand,although Loki felt like it was another language. Maybe Italian.

And then it happened. Everybody rushed forward at the exact same time. But the thugs weren't your average bandits that they had so easily beaten before. This was something... worse.

Natasha was knocked back almost immediately by one of their swords. She fell to the ground, a large gash along her arm. She blacked out, bleeding a lot. Loki had expected this to be simple, seeing as how there was only two of the thugs and five of them, including Syth. But Syth could take care of herself, and if they had gotten her...

Loki summoned ice to his finger tips and rushed forward. But the thugs countered, like seeing the color blue race up their opponents skin was totally normal for them. They pushed Loki back, causing him to dig his heels into the snow.

Suddenly, Tony spun around and karate chopped the thugs arm. The thugs arm bent at an angle it shouldn't bend at and he let out a loud cry. Tony ignored Loki as he stood back up awkwardly.

Loki ducked just in time as a blade swung over his head. He dropped to the ground and rolled backwards, springing back up and rushing forwards. Lydia appeared in front of him, countering an attack he hadn't seen coming. He silently promised himself that he'd thank her later, but then realized that was something only a soft person would do. He barely acknowledged her and ran past her, into the thick of things.

Tony was there in the center, yelling insults at the thugs. He had a new scratch across his face and his clothes were more torn than before. His left glove was smoking badly and sparking. Still he kept firing at them. The thugs dodged it fairly easily though.

Loki watched as one of them pulled out a silver knife. He looked right into Syth's eyes, who wasn't moving anymore. Her eyes were wide as the knife played along her throat.

The other thug came over and held Tony by the neck, lifting him up off the ground. He laughed as Tony struggled, his face slowly turning another color.

"We came here with a job." the first thug said, holding the knife over Syth's chest. "To teach you a lesson." she grinned at her fellow thug. "Our job was easier than we thought it was going to be. Nobody told us the renowned assassin was a pathetic little girl."

Loki almost pointed out that she was a girl, but instead kept that little joke to himself. Both the thugs laughed. Natasha was still out cold. Lydia was frozen to the spot. Tony was being strangled. Syth was about to die. A million thoughts raced through Tony's head. It would be so easy to walk away now. That was two Avengers he wouldn't have to worry about anymore. But one thing dug at the back of his thoughts: These pathetic thugs thought they were all that and a bag of chips. Mere mortals. Loki ought to teach them a lesson.

He ran forward, forming a small dagger of ice in his hand. He jumped into the air, plunging the knife into the first thug he saw. It happened to be the one that was holding Tony.

Tony fell to the ground, gasping for air. The second thug saw that her partner was dead and her eyes widened. Then, she raised the knife, ready to finish Syth off. Syth's eyes hardend and she stared the thug right in the eyes. It was a death stare that would give any banshee nightmares. But the thug ignored it.

Suddenly, Tony appeared next to her. He smacked the knife out of the thug's hand and it flew a good hundred feet and stuck in a nearby tree. The thug's eyes widened.

Tony's hand shot out and wrapped around her neck. They stayed there like that for a minute. Loki got up and calmly walked over. Suddenly, the thug went limp in Tony's arms. Tony let go and the thug collapsed. Lydia, standing behind the thug, put her knife back into it's scabbard. Loki's eyes widened. "What?" Lydia asked. "Neither of you were going to kill her." she furrowed her brow. "She was really getting on my nerves."

Loki allowed himself a smile and Tony rushed over to where Syth was laying. Loki thought he saw a single tear glistening in the corner of her eye. But she blinked and it was gone.

Tony untied her as fast as he could. "Can you get up?" he asked.

She nodded and Tony held out his hands. He hauled her up easily and she stood in front of him for a second. His hands rested on her waist unintentionally. Syth wriggled out of his grasp and walked to Natasha. "Are you okay?"

"My leg hurts a little." Natasha said.

"I'll get you a health potion."

After about an hour, Syth had decided that they needed to keep moving. There wasn't much talking between them, but Loki had a burning thought in his mind. He had heard the thug call Syth a 'renowned assassin'. Either that was just an excuse to kill her, or Loki had just earned a new respect for her.

She was difficult to read. She carried herself with a certain air that made her more... Loki couldn't think of the word. Mysterious, was the closest he could get. She did have the right skill set. But that didn't mean much. The thug could have had targets mixed up. But somehow, Loki doubted it.

They walked for three more days. It was relatively peaceful, with only the occasional bandit attack. They even had a frost troll come by. And for some reason, Lydia insisited on looting its body. And the scary thing was, she found three silver rings. How the troll had gotten those rings on it, Loki didn't want to know. Tony had _way _too much fun with it though. He thought it was hilarious, in some twisted way. "Picture it!" he said. "Some stupid rich person with a ton of jewlery wandering down the road. His name was like, John, or something. A troll comes along and eats him and decides to wear all his jewlery." he cracked up.

Lydia jumped in. "His last words: STUFFED CRUST!" she laughed loudly.

Tony smiled, mimicking a snooty person's voice. "I need my jewlery and my stuffed crust!" he cried.

Syth could barely contain her laughter. "John's favorite past time: Playing patty cake." she said.

Loki shook his head. "I thought he enjoyed stuffed crust, not cake." he said.

Natasha laughed. "I think this is a sign we've been on the road too long."

And the very next day, they arrived in Winterhold. Loki hadn't expected to see that over half the city had crumbled into the water, but it had. Apparently it wasn't anything to worry about and it had been like that for a while. It still made Loki a little wary of walking close to the edge, which was at least a 1,500 foot drop down into a freezing ocean full of razor sharp ice bergs.

They walked up to the biggest building in all of the small town. It was actually quite impressive. There was a stone pathway that led out into the air and out to a building that was built firmly into the mountain side. Tony scanned the building. "Is this safe?" he asked, glancing down at the pathway, looking mildly worried.

Syth smirked at him. "Define, safe."

Just then, two people in large, flowing robes walked up to them. They had a magical aura about them that set Loki on edge. He cracked a smile.

Lydia glanced at Syth. "Do I need to bow or something?" she whispered.

Syth contained a smile. Instead, she stared ahead at the two people in robes: one man, one woman. "My name's Syth and these are-"

The woman cut her off. "We know who you are. We've been expecting you."

Syth raised her eyebrows. "Y-you have?"

The man nodded. "Yes. We know exactly who you are and what you've done." he nodded towards Tony. "We know what your friends have done too."

"Are you going to try to punish us or something? For something we may not have done?" Lydia asked nervously.

The man smiled unnervingly, running his eyes over all of them indivdiually.

Loki smiled. "When do we start?"


End file.
